Whenever I hear someone described as a born winner I always wonder what “the born winner” thinks. They very well may have been born with some advantages; wealthy parents, good environment, etc. are a couple that come to mind. But this much I believe is certain, they were not born winners. They worked to become a winner. Even people born with those advantages can lazy the advantages away if they refuse to work to maximize them.

People that win have invariably formed the habits of doing the things that people who don’t win simply don’t like to do. Winners don’t necessary like to do them either but they do them anyway. They do them to win!

Winners make better choices, sometimes hard choices but they make them anyway. People that don’t win often make only the easy choices or worse yet they make no choice at all.

People that win take risks. Not crazy risks, but well thought-out calculated risks. People who seldom win believe they can play it safe and still win. That may have been true at one time but it’s absolutely not true in today’s world. In his latest book, “Risky is the New Safe” Randy Gage explains this concept in pitch perfect detail. If you’re going to beat the competition these days you’ll going to need to take a risk now and then.

Winners have goals. The real kind, the ones that are written down with a detailed plan on how to achieve them. They do not think in terms of “if I can” they think in terms of “how will I.” People that seldom win have dreams, wonderful dreams that way too often begin with the phrase “if only.”

Winners work to make a difference in the world around them. They care about much more than themselves. They think long term and plan ahead, they know that a set-back is not the end of the world, it is just the beginning of the next success. People that seldom win work simply to pay the bills.

Winners live in today for tomorrow, they learn from yesterday but refuse to live there. People that don’t win too often seem to be talking about the good old days. Winners know the best old days haven’t happened yet.

Winners always, always, always control their attitude. They shun people who might bring their attitude down. (Yes, they will try to positively impact other people’s attitude but not at the risk of their own.) They don’t let other people and things set the altitude at which they operate, they maintain control of the precious resource of a positive attitude no matter what.

People who struggle to win also struggle to control their attitude and there is no coincidence there – it it nearly impossible to win once you tell yourself you can’t.

Now here is the best part… Every thing that winners do can be done by anyone. These are simply (yes, I know, simply to say, hard to do) choices available to anyone willing to make a commitment to win.

So the question isn’t whether or not you’re a born winner. The question is will you decide to be a winner today!