How to Be a Winner

Sir Steven Redgrave

Winner of 5 Olympic Gold Medals

“In 1997 I was found to have developed diabetes (糖尿病). Believing my career (职业生涯) was over, I felt extremely low. Then one of the specialists said there was no reason why I should stop training and competing. That was it-the encouragement I needed. I could still be a winner if I believed in myself. I am not saying that it isn’t difficult sometimes. But I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn’t finished yet. Nothing is to stand in my way.”

Karen Pickering

Swimming World Champion

“I swim 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. I manage that sort of workload by putting it on top of my diary. This is the key to success—you can’t follow a career in any field without being well-organized. List what you believe you can achieve. “Trust yourself, write down your goals for the day, however small they are, and you’ll be a step closer to achieving them.”

Kirsten Best

Poet ＆ Writer

“When things are getting hard, a voice inside my head tells me that I can’t achieve something. Then, there are other distractions, such as family or hobbies. The key is to concentrate. When I feel tense, it helps a lot to repeat words such as ‘calm’, ‘peace’ or ‘focus’, either out loud or silently in my mind. It makes me feel more in control and increases my confidence. This is a habit that can become second nature quite easily and is a powerful psychological (心理的) tool.”

I’ve been having trouble concentrating on one thing. It made school difficult for me. When everyone else in the class was focusing on tasks, I could not.

In my first literature class, Mrs. Smith asked us to read a story and then write on it, all within 45 minutes. I raised my hand right away and said, “Mrs. Smith, you see, the doctor said I have attention problems. I might not be able to do it.” She looked at me through her glasses, “You are not different from your classmates, young man.”

I tried, but I didn’t finish the reading when the bell rang. I had to take it home.

In the quietness of my bedroom, the story suddenly all became clear to me. It was about a blind person, Louis Braille. He lived in a time when the blind couldn’t get much education. But Louis didn’t give up. Instead, he invented a reading system of raised dots (点), which opened up a whole new world of knowledge to the blind. Wasn’t I the “blind” in my class, being made to learn like the “sighted” students? My thoughts spilled out and my pen started to dance. I completed the task within 40 minutes. Indeed, I was not different from others; I just needed a quieter place. If Louis could find his way out of his problems, why should I ever give up?

I didn’t expect anything when I handed in my paper to Mrs. Smith, so it was quite a surprise when it came back to me the next day — with an “A” on it. At the bottom of the paper were these words: “See what you can do when you keep trying?”

Inspired and touched, I began to keep trying hard in my study and struggled against attention problems. I believe one can find his way out of difficulty with determination (决心) and efforts.

Michael Jordon is the greatest basketball player of all time. Once he was making a television commercial (广告). All Michael needed to do in the advertisement was to miss a shot.

For Michael, this was difficult. He had conditioned himself to succeed whenever he was throwing the ball. Every time he threw a basketball, it went in. Every time he tried to miss a shot, he failed. In total, it took him over 20 attempts (尝试) before he missed a shot.

For Michael, success is a strong habit. He had formed a habit that was so strong that it took him a lot of time to break it and “fail”.

Just like drinking, smoking and collecting things, success is also a habit. The only thing is, it is much more effective!

Like all habits, once it is established (建立), it is difficult to break.

Many people think that success is difficult to maintain (维持). They feel that it will be hard work and will need too much action and focus. The truth is that it is simply a habit, and as easy to maintain as any other habit.

Spend some time making success a habit in your life. Once you have developed it, it is not something you will want to change again. Then, the only thing you will fail at is failing.