How to Become a Winner in Life

Tired of feeling like life slipped into autopilot after school, a job, or a rough season? We unpack what “winning” actually looks like and how to build it from the inside out—starting today. Sean shares the simple framework he gave his daughter: lead with a great attitude, give your best effort to whatever’s in front of you, and refuse to quit on yourself. It’s not motivational fluff; it’s a practical operating system that makes you magnetic to people, skills, and chances that change your future.

We start by reframing success as creating a life you truly love, not chasing status or someone else’s timeline. If you’ve ever felt stuck after the diploma, buried by debt, or dulled by a nine-to-five, this conversation shows how to take back control. You’ll hear how gratitude resets your emotional state, why optimism is a force multiplier in relationships and work, and how consistent effort quietly builds identity capital that others can’t ignore. From making the bed to mastering new skills online, small wins stack into big momentum.

Sean also opens up about a season of rock bottom—24 hours a day in a cell—and the belief shift that turned a dead end into a doorway. That lens change is the real unlock: when you believe effort pays off, you start acting like it, and life responds. We wrap with a clear recap you can use daily: show up positive, go above and beyond, and don’t quit when progress gets slow. That’s how you become attractive to opportunity and proud of the life you’re building.

If this resonates, subscribe, share it with someone who needs a push, and leave a review. Which of the three principles will you double down on this week?

Chapters

• 0:00 What Winning Really Means
• 0:50 Subscribe And Why This Matters
• 1:06 Scarlett’s Question About Success
• 2:27 Life By Default After School
• 3:57 Take Back Control At Any Age
• 4:18 Principle One: Attitude And Gratitude
• 6:03 Become Attractive To Opportunity
• 6:44 Principle Two: Give Your Best Effort
• 9:05 Faith, Recognition, And Results
• 9:33 Principle Three: Don’t Quit
• 11:01 Belief Systems And Redemption Story
• 12:25 Shift Your Lens To Possibility
• 13:37 Recap: Attitude, Effort, Persistence
• 14:06 Final Charge To Maximize Life

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

So for any of you out there right now, if you want to know how to become successful or create a life that you feel like a winner in, right? A life where you're winning, I guarantee you you will improve the quality of your life over time. So the first thing I told Scarlett when she said, Dad, how do you become a winner in life? I said, you gotta focus on being positive every day and having a good attitude. If you don't quit and give up on your goals and dreams, it's inevitable that you'll reach them and improve the quality of life. It might not turn out exactly the way you anticipate or envision when you started, but I guarantee you will get to a much better place than where you started and you'll look back one day and go, wow, I'm really excited about my life. I feel really grateful about what I've done and accomplished. I'm your host, Sean Michael Crane. Thank you for tuning in. Before I get into this message today, please make sure if you haven't already, subscribe to the channel, share with somebody who's looking for motivation and inspiration to take their life to the next level. I promise you these messages will have an impact. And today I want to share something pretty cool with you. A question that my daughter Scarlett asked me the other day and my response. And this is relevant for anybody out there who's struggling with mindset, habits, addiction, finance, health, and fitness, and just really how to have a breakthrough and to create a life that you're truly proud of. Because that's the ultimate goal, right? And let's get into it. My daughter asked me the other day, she said, Hey, dad, how do you become a winner in life? Like, how do you become successful? And she probably hears me talk about this a lot, or maybe she saw a piece of content or a YouTube video or a podcast I did where I talk about being a winner, having a winner's mindset. One thing I'm always doing with my children is I'm planting seeds for them. You know, I want them to know that in order to create a life that they're happy with, it takes effort. Um, and you know, I use terms like winner or uh success. Um, but what that really means is like to become somebody or create a life that you're truly proud of. So first and foremost, when she asked me, hey dad, how do you become a winner in life? I said, Well, the goal, baby girl, is to create a life that you truly love and cherish. So for any of you out there right now, if you want to know how to become successful or create a life that you feel like a winner in, right? A life where you're winning, it's ultimately to create a life that you're so happy with that you don't want to check out. You don't want to sleep in, you don't want to numb yourself with drugs and alcohol, you don't find yourself just going through the motions. And to be transparent with you, I think most people find themselves in a life by default, meaning they're not doing what they want every day. They're not excited about what they're doing, and they start to feel jaded and they start to find themselves going through the motions in life. And this happens typically after high school or college. Up until that point, people are focused on this ascent towards a better life. All through elementary school, you're thinking about, you know, the future in junior high. And then in junior high, they're talking about high school, and then the first thing they do in high school is start talking to you about college. And it's like, okay, you're on this ascent to learning, to educating yourself, to getting these skills, to getting this life experience to create a better life. And what's happening in 2025 is that people go to college, and then after that, they're left feeling a little bit let down. They go and get these degrees, they get into debt, they don't really, you know, have the growth that they want in college, they don't come out and get these amazing careers and jobs, and they're kind of just floundering. They're getting these regular nine to fives, they're a barista at Starbucks, they're a hostess at a local restaurant, they're in an industry where they didn't even get an education for that industry, and then they start to like feel like, oh man, what's next? Well, there's no ascent now, there's no goals, there's no next level. And I think that's where a lot of people start settling. And you see it because they start using substances more or seeking pleasure more. Um, they don't have these defined goals that they're going after, they don't develop themselves. Uh, and so it's a big problem. It's a very big problem. So I tell anybody right now, I don't care if you're 35, 25, 15, I don't care if you're 45. If you at any time in your life, you can take back control and you can create a life that you're truly in love with. And that's the goal for all of us is that we wake up each and every day and we're so excited about what we're doing, we're so proud of who we are, and and we're creating opportunities for ourselves. But at the core of it all, before you develop the skills, before you make the money, before you get the tangible results, there's a shift internally in your mindset and in your approach to life that's gonna make a huge difference. And so for my young children, when they ask me questions like this, I'm all about teaching them the belief system and the mindset that's gonna allow them to achieve what they want in life. I'm not giving them specifics yet. My daughter is six, she's young. So what I told her when she said, Hey dad, how do you become a winner in life? I told her, well, check it out. First thing you gotta do is focus on creating a life that you're truly happy with. That means a life that you absolutely love. And when I think about people that create lives that they love, the first thing I think about is their attitude and the way they show up each and every day. And I don't care if you're a janitor at an elementary school, if you're a multimillionaire, if you're a business owner, if you're a stay-at-home mom, if you show up with a positive attitude each and every day, a good attitude, if you're optimistic, if you're positive, if you're thinking about how grateful you are to get to do what you do in life, you're already winning. Okay? Don't let society tell you you need a certain amount of money in your bank account, a certain status, a certain job title to be happy. That's complete bullshit. Okay, you don't need anything external to be happy. It's something internal, okay? And the way that you cultivate true happiness from within is seeing the good in your life. It's the gratitude perspective. If you get up every day and you start thinking about what you don't have, you're never gonna be happy. You're never gonna be happy. You're always gonna feel like you're lacking. And then when you get around people that you have relationships with, family members, friends, or you actually get to do things that are somewhat enjoyable, or you just go on to everyday life, you're gonna bring a lesser version of yourself into those moments because you're thinking in your mind about what you don't have, that's going to affect your energy and your emotional state, and it's gonna compromise the way you show up for people. I learned this a long time ago when I was in an environment where I had nothing, no money, no material items, no opportunity, like nothing. I recognize the importance of my attitude and how that would affect my emotional state. And so if you're somebody that wants to get ahead in life and you're not where you want to be, you have to become attractive to the world. You want to attract opportunity. What is opportunity? It's people, right? It's certain situations, it's a perspective, it's an attitude. When you go out into your world and your life, in your endeavors with a good attitude, and you're positive, and you're optimistic, and you believe that good things are gonna come to you, if you work hard and you do the right thing, you have that train of thought, I guarantee you you will improve the quality of your life over time. So the first thing I told Scarlett when she said, Dad, how do you become a winner in life? I said, you gotta focus on being positive every day and having a good attitude. Number two, I told her, is that no matter what you're doing in your life, do it to the best of your ability. Again, if you're a janitor at a local elementary school, if you're working at a gas station and you're in the service industry in any capacity, if you're a business owner, if you're a parent, whatever it is, whatever you're doing, give your best effort. This needs to become a part of your core identity and who you are. You're the guy or woman, the man or woman that goes above and beyond in everything that he or she does. Those types of individuals stand out in society. And it reinforces number one, which is have a good attitude. You know, it's really hard to have a good attitude if you're half-assing everything. If you're rolling out of bed, you're not making your bed, you're not doing the dishes, you're letting trash pile up in your house, you're not really working out, or when you do, you go through the motions. Like, if you're just giving less effort to everything you do in life, you're not gonna feel good about yourself, and you're not gonna feel good about your life. So, number one and number two, reinforce one another, right? You have to utilize positive self-talk each and every day to create optimism and faith. Today's gonna be a good day. Today I'm blessed with legs I get to walk around on. Today I live in the United States of America in 2025 where there's more opportunity than there's ever been. Today I could use the internet to share a positive message. Today I can walk down the street and just greet people and bring that infectious energy into their lives, right? You gotta psych yourself up every day and recognize the opportunities that we all have. But then number two is whatever you're doing, do it to the best of your ability. Like I said, this becomes a core uh operating system that you have in your identity, it becomes a core core of your identity. And this is so important because you will stand out and you will create future opportunities because someone's gonna recognize, oh, you know, so-and-so had a good attitude, so-and-so gives good effort. Let's say you're working at a job where there's opportunity, you're more likely to get hired, get raises, get promotions. Let's say one of the owners of that company breaks off from one of their partners and starts their own operation, all of a sudden they point you out and they say, Hey, I want you to go with me. I'll pay you five times more money for the same job. Like it's crazy the things that you can create in your life in the future if you just show up with a good attitude and give your best effort every day. And there's always an element of faith. Faith that if you do the right thing, it's gonna pay off. Faith, faith that if you give your best effort today, someone's gonna recognize it and it's gonna create opportunities down the road. There's always faith. But you have two options either do what I'm saying or don't. And half-ass your life and be negative, and what do you think that's gonna get you, right? Or just give minimal effort and wait for something to fall on your lap. That's not the way it works. All these people waiting for handouts out in society and complaining for what they don't have, if they took their focus and energy and applied it to what they could do today, built skills, built their self-worth up, took massive action every day to improve the quality of their lives, instead of complaining, projecting, and being negative, they would see that they have control to create results. Okay. Now, the third piece, the third thing that I told Scarlett is very important because in order to create a life that you love and cherish, in order to create success, in order to get the results that you want, it's gonna take a lot of time and a lot of effort. And in that pursuit and in that journey, a lot of people become um, you know, they become discouraged, they lose motivation, they lose clarity around their goals, they forget why they started, they get sidetracked, you know, and they quit and give up or they settle. So the third thing that you have to recognize is that if you don't quit and give up on your goals and dreams, it's inevitable that you'll reach them and improve the quality of your life. It might not turn out exactly the way you anticipate or envision when you started, but I guarantee you will get to a much better place than where you started, and you'll look back one day and go, wow, I'm really excited about my life. I feel really grateful about what I've done and accomplished. And literally by showing up with a good attitude every day and giving your best effort. Because over time, you're more likely to maximize your time, you're more likely to build quality relationships, you're more likely to learn things, develop skill sets, and improve yourself, all by showing up with the right attitude and mentality and really giving effort to what you're doing in life. I think for young people, when I think about people like 15 to 25 right now, and they're going through high school and they're getting ready to either go to college or go out in the workforce, I think this bit of advice is some of the most sound advice that they could ever have. I think a lot of people right now are confused, like, what should I do? How am I gonna get out and make it? You know, oh, expenses are high, you know, cost of living's high, wages are low, we hear this a lot. But what you have to recognize is you have the ultimate control over your destiny. And just the fact that you believe that puts you at an advantage. Like a lot of the things that people believe dictate who they become and what they have. There's something so profound about your beliefs. I'm the delusional guy that was spending, you know, 24 hours a day in a jail cell facing life in prison, that I believe that was an opportunity for me to seek redemption. I believe that it was gonna help me get sober. I believe God was intervening in my life. I believe that it was gonna give me a second chance to come home and do something I was truly proud of. Because I started to create this belief system, whether you think it was delusional or not, and then every day I started giving my best effort to everything that was in front of me, the push-ups that day, the book that I read, eventually the college courses I got to take, the jobs I got in prison. Like it cultivated this mindset approach to life that became a perspective, a lens in which I see the world. So, in this dreary environment with no opportunity, I created a world of limitless possibilities because of what I'm sharing with you right now. And this is the hardest thing for people is to shift their belief system, to shift their thinking. When you do that, you will see the world through a different lens. You won't see the things you can't do and why everything's stacked up against you. You won't get sucked into all this crap on social media or uh like all these politics and all this negativity in the world and be dreading the economy and the future and da-da-da-da-da. You'll start to look around you and go, damn, I have so much opportunity. Like, look at this phone and social media, and I can connect with people and share messages. Look at ChatGBT and Google, I can learn anything. I can learn any skill in the world that will make me valuable, and then I can go out and build a career and a life for myself, and and it'll just create this whole new outlook on life. So, you guys, remember what I told Scarlett and apply it to your life and share this clip with anybody that you know who wants to make it life and who wants to create better outcomes for themselves. Number one, you gotta become attractive to the world. How do you do that? Show up with a good attitude. I don't know about you, but I don't like talking or being around negative people. I get really upset when I go into Starbucks or a restaurant and the server doesn't smile and they're grumpy. I'm like, what are you doing here? Do you want a tip or not? When people smile and they give me good service at a restaurant, I'll give them 10 times the amount of money that I spent on the meal with my family as their tip just to reinforce that positivity that we need in society, okay? Number two, if you work hard, people are gonna want you to work with them. They're gonna wanna partner up with you, they're gonna look at you as a valuable asset. If you want to create success in life, you have to become valuable. So the way you do it is have a good attitude and sharpen yourself every day by creating that core belief that I'm a hard worker, I go above and beyond, and you're gonna stand out. In a world full of people half-assing it, you're gonna look like a gem, a diamond in the rough. And number three, never quit up, quit and give up on yourself because honestly, you get this gift to do something amazing with your life. And I don't know about you, but I haven't died and really came back to life and got to do this over and over and over. Like maybe we're in a simulation, maybe you're in a video game right now, we don't know. But why chance it? Why act like you're gonna get to do a do-over when you might not? Maximize this life. Don't quit or give up on your dreams. Create something you're proud of. Work hard for it because at the end of the day, you're gonna appreciate it way more. Let's go.