To be a winner you have to think like one. It’s no secret that thinking is the key ingredient to success, and if you can master it then you can achieve any result you can dream of. It sounds easy, yet most of society fail at this fundamental success principle.

Before you can even begin to think like a winner you need to become consciously aware of your thoughts and how they are affecting every little part of your life. All it takes is one angry moment like tooting your horn, to alter your state of mind for the next few hours.

Your state of mind then has a direct effect on your success in that block of time and whether you will win or lose the game of life. We spend our days operating on autopilot and don’t ask ourselves tough questions often enough.

If we spent just a few minutes each week asking ourselves whether our thoughts have been inspiring us or bringing us down, we could then directly affect them going forward. Changing your thoughts is not easy and like anything it takes practice. Don’t let this deter you though as it is simpler than you might think.

Below are six ways to think like a winner which will directly intensify the results of your life.

1. Believe that anything is possible

Have you ever noticed how winners never ask whether something is possible? This is a common trait in winners as well as entrepreneurs, and it’s the single biggest belief you must adopt if you want to intensify your life and increase your success.

You need to get into the habit of challenging those who believe that something can’t be done and show others that nothing is impossible. By demonstrating acts that defy what people think is possible, you inspire those around you as well as reinforce this belief further in your own mind.

In order to defy the odds, you will be required to consistently keep on seeing and hearing stories of the impossible being achieved. It’s not enough to demonstrate this belief once; you need to see it daily otherwise your mind gets lazy and forgets.

Then, all that needs to happen is for some new input to enter your brain through an unconscious source like TV, and before you know it, you’re broke, tired, sick, and wondering what happened to your life. You’re left wondering why you are no longer a winner. Don’t let that be you! You’re better than that!

2. Consciously forgive everyone no matter what

Winners don’t let situations get in their way. They don’t let one accidental action by another person stay with them. Those around you and in your business network are going to make mistakes, and they are going to conflict with your rules at some time.

Learn to drop your rules about how people need to behave and forgive them when they do the wrong thing. Nothing that anyone does to you is everlasting, and every single person should have a second chance.

If a stranger bumps into you or knocks over your juice (I have green juice on my brain again), realise that it was an accident and forgive them on the spot. If you go out of your way to forgive people then you will achieve the kind of results that your peers won’t.

For you to be able to forgive people easily, you will need to get into the habit of thinking that people don’t go out of their way to do the wrong thing by you. More than 90% of the time, when someone does something you deem to be wrong, it’s not intentional.

When you start to think like this, you will consciously forgive others intentionally without even needing to think about it. This is one way to join the exclusive winners club.

3. Always learn new skills every day

To think like a winner it’s important to acquire new skills every day that make you think at a higher level. Learning new skills will keep your mind active and allow you to change thought patterns when required.

As you learn and unlearn skills and beliefs, you train your brain to be more fluid and get it used to constant change. A mind that can’t deal with change will not do well in this current era because we all know change is happening very fast.

The best skills that winners learn most often are those that affect the way you think. Thinking in itself is a skill, and the brain can learn to reframe prior information in a new way. The penalty for not learning new skills every day is a life of disappointment and boredom.

If the brain doesn’t experience growth, then it can cause you to feel unfulfilled, and this can become the foundation for failure if it goes on for a sustained period of time. Winners are multi-skilled, and they never stop learning no matter what – they love a challenge.

4. Link being uncomfortable to being in a good state of mind

A common trait of winners is that they have linked up in their own brain that being in uncomfortable situations is a good state to be in. Similar to the previous point, growth is a basic human need, and we all crave it.

“Winners spend time every day doing something that makes them uncomfortable because they know that’s where growth comes from” – Tim Denning

For me, I am only just starting to get better at public speaking. This is because I have spent time being uncomfortable and giving it a go.

The thought process I used was to tell myself that I am not a great public speaker right now but that I will be. Every uncomfortable moment of speaking in front of large groups has built mental muscle. It won’t be long before I am speaking like a pro thanks to getting out of my comfort zone.

The winners I know have reframed in their brain that if they are always comfortable, then they will get complacent and fail. This may or may not be true, but if you want to think like a winner, then you need to start telling yourself lies (positive lies that is).

5. Embrace being different and out of place

The way you look, your email signature, your writing, and the photos you take of yourself all make you different. To think like a winner you need to believe that the things that are odd about you or the things that make you not like everyone else, are the things that actually make you successful.

If I look at my situation, I write articles that are very left of centre, I have a work email signature that is quirky for the conservative people I interact with, I speak with a strange sense of urgency, and my photo appears in vulnerable situations continually.

These traits sometimes make me think that everyone is laughing at me or doesn’t respect me. In fact, it’s these traits that create winners and have allowed me to be successful. Being like everyone else will only get you the results that everyone else achieves.

The results that all of us who are part of the Addicted2Success community want are much more extraordinary than what the rest of the world is satisfied with. How would anyone tell me apart if I just had a generic email signature, spoke with no purpose or urgency, and was happy with not taking risks?

It’s the stupid, crazy quirks that make up who you are; that is what winners understand to be a way of thinking that creates success. As long as you think that you need to conform to someone else’s standards, you will be forever changing yourself and shaping your life for the worse. That’s not you, and you know better than that!

6. Know that a mind that thinks about conspiracies will cripple you

Thanks to the world of documentaries, there is now a film on every different type of conspiracy you can imagine. Our mainstream film industry fills us with conspiracy stories and ideas that you can’t trust anyone.

Over time, if you constantly believe in conspiracies and that people are conspiring against you, you will develop a way of thinking that is not good for you. It’s easy to believe that someone is plotting some evil plan to derail your success or take you down, but in reality, most people are too obsessed with themselves to have the time to care about sabotaging your life.

People are not as interested as you may think about something you did wrong or an embarrassing situation that happened to you because they are too busy trying to be careful of not doing that very thing themselves.

I used to get sucked into believing conspiracies and thinking they were cool. I started allowing movies to tell me that man didn’t land on the moon and that every person I thought was great was deep down a rapist, druggy or a con man.

In reality, we all have weaknesses, and there is no perfect idol. We should spend our time creating positive thoughts and believing in the good of people, rather than the other way round if we want to think like winners.

How do you think like a winner in your life and what action do you take? Share your answer in the comment section below or on my personal Facebook and Twitter Pages.