Are you playing to NOT LOSE?

The Bottom Line:

There's a big difference between playing to win and playing to not lose.

Here's a quick self-check for symptoms of playing to not lose:

• you think in terms of “What’s the least I can make do with?”

• you keep your expectations low so you feel you have at least some chance of meeting them

• you hear yourself saying “I’ll try” instead of “I will”

• you dip a toe into new activities rather than commit wholeheartedly

• you default to thinking of The Big Fail when you contemplate possible outcomes of a course of action

• you put some effort into an activity (once), then give up on it if you don’t get immediate results

• you resist implementing a new idea because, as long as you don’t take action, there’s no way of failing and you can still consider success a possibility

Do some of these hit home to the point where you’re cringing as you whimper “Ouch!”?  If so, here are some powerful painkillers.

• Take the next few days to identify situations in which you're playing to not lose, because awareness of self-sabotaging behaviors is the essential first step in changing them. 

• Tune in next week to learn specific steps you can take to turn your action default into playing to win.

• If you want to get started now, be sure to check out the early-bird pricing for my turn-it-around course, Time to Create What’s Next - good through November 30th.

(BTW, thanks to Ruth Hartnup for posting the timidly-dipping-a-toe-in image on Flickr.)