What does it take to be a winner? A question I often find myself wondering. After all, who wants to be a loser? This blog will explore experiences in my life that taught me what it meant to be a winner. First, I want to talk about fear.

Fear is blinding, fear is everywhere. From the time I was five years old until I was eighteen, I lived in fear. For thirteen years I watched my best friends have the time of their lives playing football. For thirteen years that’s all I wanted.

I begged and I begged my mother to let me play. But she never budged. You see my mother as beautiful, intelligent, and loving as she is, was fearful. Fearful that her young boy would get injured playing football. A reasonable critique that I cannot fault her for. That is because I was fearful too. Fearful I would ruin my prospective baseball career. I played baseball for 14 years and it was my life. I worked hard and I was good, probably the best.

But when it was all said and done I didn’t think about baseball. I can still remember jumping into my bed and catching a football I tossed into the air. I would pretend like I just caught the game-winning touchdown. The chill that would run down my spine was intoxicating. All I wanted to do was play, but I was still scared.

I didn’t have to be afraid anymore. The air was cool, my heart was thumping. The turf pounded beneath my feet as I ran as hard as I could. I did it. I was standing in the end zone out of breath. I had just caught a game-winning fifty-five-yard touchdown in front of thousands of people from my hometown. That moment on my bed when I jumped in the air was real and it was better than I imagined.  But how did I end up there?

Rewind six months. I finally let go. I let go of the fear eating me alive, I let go of my doubts and worries. And one day after a long baseball season, I bought cleats gave my furious mother a kiss and I went to football practice for the first time. The best decision I have ever made.

Six months later standing in the end zone I won. I defeated fear and I proved something to myself. I could do anything I put my mind to. Fear no longer controlled my life. To this day I rely on that moment. Whenever I’m nervous about trying something new, getting a new job, or talking to a new person. I think of that moment. That is what winning was. Having conviction, trust, confidence and fearlessness. That is my first ingredient for a winning mindset.