A Winning Mindset Beyond the Scoreboard (Episode 155)

Ever find yourself riding the emotional highs and lows, feeling like each day is a major league event? As Dr. Jason Wiggins, I've got a playbook full of strategies for my fellow Gen Z and Millennial enthusiasts looking to score big in life's game. We're not just talking touchdowns and field goals here; we're exploring how the challenges and triumphs, much like those in a Super Bowl showdown, are crucial parts of our personal journey toward growth and fulfillment. Tune in and discover how to celebrate every play, regardless of the scoreboard, by redefining what it means to win and lose with dignity and determination.

Get ready for an episode that's all about making the most of your daily hustle, whether you're aiming for that promotion or striving to be a better friend. We'll unravel the threads of successful goal-setting beyond the shiny allure of material wealth, taking a deep dive into the significance of integrity, health, and relationships. And amidst the inevitable setbacks? That's where true grit comes in. I'll share why persistence and motivation are your MVPs on the path to success, painting a vivid picture of how continuous effort—your tireless training camp—is what truly separates the champions from the spectators. So, grab your headphones and let's kick things off with the right mindset for winning at the game of life!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome, friends, to your motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert podcast. I am your host, dr Jason Wiggins. The podcast is for Gen Z and Millenials, on how we can improve and we can help you in your daily lives, professionally and personally, by motivating you to reach your goals. This is a weekly podcast with new episodes each and every Monday, barring a holiday. First and foremost, I hope you had a terrific weekend. Let's get our heads right and get the show on the road. Well, first and foremost, thank you very much.

Speaker 1: 0:53

It was an exciting weekend, to say the least. If you're in the United States, I'm sure you were able to catch the exciting end to the Super Bowl. We had a Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers and it was a great game that ended up going in the overtime and, as you know, every game, barring a tie, has a winner and a loser. Well, this discussion today is about how to win and lose, but feel like you actually accomplished something. Now, that's easier said than done. When you think about it, you go well, of course, if I win, I accomplished something. Think about this in the case of both teams before the biggest game in United States sports on an annual basis. You could see players with tears rolling down their eyes and the coaches were trembling as they're holding their clipboard and the fans were going crazy. The audience across the United States and all the TVs and abroad were going crazy. It was a high stress, high reward type of atmosphere and, of course, it was in Las Vegas, where it's the kind of the mecca of the United States when it comes to entertainment for those that are adults. So it was an epic, epic weekend. Obviously, we don't talk about sports too much. We talk about things that help you professionally and personally, which is why we are going to talk about today, about how to win and lose while actually coming on top.

Speaker 1: 2:50

So let's talk about, let's just say it's sometimes you lose, you lose on something that's extremely important to you. You had every ounce of energy going towards that winning goal, that winning shot, that winning career move, that winning personal life goal, whatever it may be. You may have put everything into what you wanted, but you came out short. I've been there, I've done it. I've been in a semi championship game where who won that game would go to the championship game and we ended up losing in a couple over times.

Speaker 1: 3:33

It wasn't the lack of effort. It was sometimes not execution, sometimes it was just the better team won. And remember, any team on any given day can be better than someone else. Somebody could be feeling under the weather. You could, have team members out, you could. There could be a plethora of reasons why things don't always work out. In this case, you kind of knew it was in trouble in that game when all of a sudden somebody is running out onto the field and they fall and they tear their Achilles tendon. It's not an immebiable position, it's not a great thing. But at the end it's about execution, it's about the desire to win and it's about the desire to find a way to come up on top even when you're not at your best.

Speaker 1: 4:35

Now let's turn our eyes to the losing team, San Francisco 49ers. They played their hearts out, they did what they could. So imagine this you're in a career, you're doing everything you can. Your goal is to get promoted. Your goal is to to reach the next step. You have competition with another team member. You think you're better than they are.

Speaker 1: 4:58

But sometimes it's office politics, it's sometimes out of your control and there you sit there and go. Why not me? Well, sometimes it's all about timing. Maybe it wasn't the right time. It doesn't mean you weren't good enough. It just means somebody else was picked for a variety of different reasons. And that's the same thing why San Francisco might have lost to the Chiefs it was just because that on a given day, somebody was able to do just a little bit more than you to win the game.

Speaker 1: 5:35

And that's about how life is. Life is like a game, a game you play every single day and you know what the goal of that day of life is, every single day. It's to get through it and to try to do the best you can and make sure that you gave it your all. Because one day, when we leave this earth, how are we judged by our peers, by our self, as we go out? First and foremost, you want to make sure you were a great family person, a great friend, you did the right things for people, you treated people well, you did the right things in life and you want to know you're a good person. So if you do that every single day in life, that means you will come out as a winner.

Speaker 1: 6:28

Gen Zs and Millennials times are tough. Inflation jobs they're all tight, I mean, even though. Wages are going up across the world, so are the cost of goods, so are all the entranious costs, extraneous costs that are involved are going up, up and up. People are working two or three jobs to support their family, but are they winning in life? The answer is simple. Winning is about how you turn yourself inside out and you look at yourself. Are you doing the very best you can? Are you doing the things that make you a better person? Are you being optimistic when life throws you lemons? You've heard this saying maybe you haven't you make lemonade. Again. When life throws you lemons, you make lemonade. And that, right, there is the essence of life. It's about when you have opportunities to be a better team member, to have a chance for that promotion, to have a chance to be able to rise to the occasion. What do you do? How do you eat an elephant? You eat an elephant, one bite at a time. When you're able to eat a bite at one bite at a time, you're able to keep making it happen, keep going for the goal and keep finding a way to succeed.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Life can be difficult. The environment can be difficult. Sometimes. We're not always put in a win-win situation. But how do you win. You win by checking yourself at the front door. What does that mean? It means leave the ego out.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Sometimes in life, we don't understand why things happen. They happen because that was their place in time for us. I can think of so many different occasions where it seemed like life was throwing me curveballs and I'm going why? Why is this happening? How, come, with all the effort and work that I put in, things are not working right? Why am I not getting this promotion? Why am I not getting this job? Why am I not doing this? Why is that? Why isn't business taking off?

Speaker 1: 9:06

Whatever it may be in your life, you'll have to look and go. Why not? Well, guess what? If you keep pushing forward, you keep taking one step forward instead of two steps back life will become much easier. Nobody's going to give you what you want in life. You have to shoot for the stars. You have to go forward, and that's when you look at the game last night. The game was about two teams doing their best to where only one team wins and takes home the championship trophy. Therefore, there's going to be one winner and there's going to be one loser, but the true loser is the one that did not put the effort to get where they needed to be. The true winner is regardless of the situation and how it unfolds. You gave everything you had, you did what you could to try to win, and that leaves us.

Speaker 1: 10:10

As we move forward, we're going to talk about the what would you do moment, and we're going to also have a quote. The quote will be very vague in the manner that I will portray it, but it's still important to look at these life obstacles that are thrown at us to determine how can we get around. Times are tough, parents are broke, families are broke, jobs are spares. I mean, this is just not within the United States, this is across the world, and so you have to find ways to circulate your opportunities and therefore, winning is in your mind the ability to generate excitement, motivation that continue, ability to press on even when times get difficult, and I always want to state that when you're in a chance to win or lose, whatever may be in, it's about giving your all, giving your best, but realizing if you came short, remember to look the other team in the eye and say good job, you did what you could. The better team won today, and that's not an indictment on you or your team. It's about understanding the level playing field in life and realizing I may have not got what I wanted this time, but if I keep pushing towards my goals, doing the right things, making the opportunities, then things will become more easier, they will become more transparent and I will see what the rainbow holds.

Speaker 1: 12:00

At the end. What is that part of gold that is waiting for me? Well, that part of gold, I found for me very simple. It's not career, it's not circumstances. It's family and health and the ability to look at myself and say am I the best husband I can be? Am I the best father I can be? Am I the best friend I can be? Am I the best son I can be? All of these questions, as I get older, are ones that remain so important. It's not about the money, it's not about the opportunities that lie ahead, so much anymore. It's about doing the right thing. Doing the right thing, and what does that mean?

Speaker 1: 12:50

Winning and losing ultimately evolves around doing the right thing, fulfilling your life goals, fulfilling your passions, understanding that the only thing that prevents us from doing what we want and pursuing our goals, trying to win, is simple it is the desire. What is your desire to take it to the next level, professionally, personally and finding that niche, that niche that is so important to you to succeed in life. That's what I'm talking about. That's the difference between winning and losing. I would never call anybody a loser, but what is a loser?

Speaker 1: 13:44

A loser is someone that doesn't try, that gives up before the race has even started. It's too hard, I can't do it. All of the self-doubts just run through your head, dialing in and going you can't do this, you're not smart enough, you're not good enough, you're not athletic enough, you're not this, you're not that, you don't have this, you don't have that, you can't date this girl, you can't marry this boy. Whatever it may be, all the self-doubts that we have in our lifetime will prevent us, prevent you, from creating a path of tremendous opportunities. Opportunities come knocking, then you better come answering.

Speaker 1: 14:42

And again, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. That's exactly what you do when you have an opportunity, you take one bite at a time and you go for it. Go for it, make an impact, make a stand and let all those people with those self doubts about you Let them fall from the wayside. Let them leave your surroundings, leave your inner bubble. People that want the best for you are going to strive for you to be successful.

Speaker 1: 15:22

What is success? It's not money, it's not fame. It's fulfilling your passion, fulfilling your goals and ultimately, at the end, when you look in the mirror for that very last time, you stand up and you say to yourself did I make it? Did I do what I was put on this earth to do? Did I treat people right? Did I leave a family legacy? Did I leave everybody knowing that I did my very best? That's what's really important the game of life. There are no winners, there are no losers. It's the chance to fulfill your opportunities in life.

Speaker 1: 16:10

Sometimes you will, sometimes you won't, and those opportunities we don't even know existed because why we took one path versus another, and the one path that we took might take us away from winning the big event or losing the big event, or moving from this country. Think about this all the opportunities, all the roads you've crossed over time where you could have went one way or the other. I can tell you right now I may not be with my wife today if I had moved from San Diego and took a job somewhere else in the country. I had the opportunity, but Sometimes it's fate that keeps you where you are and that life goals and plans. You don't understand at the time, but you stay and there's a purpose. You stay because that's the trajectory of life.

Speaker 1: 17:08

If you leave one location to go somewhere else before you've actually maybe had a family, that life trajectory could literally take you from marrying one person to marrying another person, having a whole different life. I mean, that's what life does. It's about crossroads. Do I take this job? Do I go in this direction? Do I take years off of work? Do I start a business? Do I relocate? All of these different kinds of scenarios will make a huge impact in where you go from here, regardless if you're 20, 30, 40 years old, 50 years old, whatever it may be, as a Gen Z and millennial, gen X, baby boomer, whatever it may be, life will keep throwing you curve balls. It'll keep saying, hey, if you do this, this will happen. It's like a math equation X Y. What happens? It's the Y intercept. This is what's gonna happen with the math equation, whatever it may be.

Speaker 1: 18:14

The great thing is life is amazing. Winning is amazing. Losing is not so amazing. But when you have the opportunity, regardless if you win or lose, you have to take that opportunity, because you never get that opportunity back in many occasions. So, again, if you put your very best effort in like, I'm sure, the 49ers versus the Chiefs they put their very best effort in, but sometimes, plain and simple, it wasn't in the cards, it wasn't meant to be, and that is part of life. It's not meant to be so.

Speaker 1: 18:50

When you talk about the what would you do moment, how would you react if you saw somebody just lose one of the most important things, either career-wise or personally-wise, and they're upset? What would you do in that moment? Would you tell them a job well done? Would you just console them and have tears with them? Would you say that things are gonna get better? Or would you say this was just a missed opportunity, but there's gonna be more?

Speaker 1: 19:25

I mean, that's part of life, everything that's thrown at us. We have the opportunity to be better, to try harder, to make sacrifices. What's gonna happen? These two football teams that played in Super Bowl? They're gonna go back to spring training next year. They're gonna work hard. They're gonna do everything they can, because every single team goal is to go to the Super Bowl. If you're playing football and therefore the opportunity is there.

Speaker 1: 19:56

So, again, I just want to confirm what I've said today, and that is there are no winners and losers. There's only those that didn't try. So that means if you try, you gave your heart, you're a winner. It may not have showed up in the box score, but each and every one of us, we have to keep moving forward. Don't let life knock you down, don't let economics knock you down, don't let foul words or mean things that people say knock you down. Don't let your own self doubt knock you down.

Speaker 1: 20:30

And that leads me to our saying today the quote. The quote is when you stop trying, you stop winning, and that was an anonymous. When you stop trying, you stop winning. And that was an anonymous quote. I could not find the author, but that is everything that's true about life, everything that's true about being a sports athlete or any career you're in. So I hope everybody enjoyed today's episode, I hope everybody enjoyed the game and I am excited to continue to move forward and help motivate you any way you can. So feel free to share the podcast with your family and friends. Again, my name is Dr Jason Wiggins. I am your Gen Z and Millennial expert, so take care, and we'll talk to you later. Bye, bye.