An analogy many people make when it comes to being in business or being an entrepreneur is like competing in sports. There are many sports phrases that crossover into what we do as entrepreneurs. And there are winners and losers in everything we do, like in sports. Each day we play to win. But how we go about playing to win can be very different.

There are two different mindsets to consider when it comes to playing to win in life. If we consider ourselves ‘all in’ we should be devoting everything to winning. We need to be present all the time by putting in as many hours as humanly possible. On top if this, being present means being engaged too. Every moment of every day is an opportunity to improve on something or to get ahead. This takes up most of our time and our energy too. Personal health, both mental and physical, can also be sacrificed.

The other mindset is playing not to lose. With this mindset, you tend to hold back and not fully commit to a winning outcome. There is much vulnerability when committing yourself fully to something. That risk of failure and the feelings that go with failure scare many of us. Holding back is far more comfortable.

What we can conclude is that playing to win involves taking big leaps. And big leaps mean being vulnerable. This is also about choosing growth over fear.

Seeking change with a playing to win mindset is brave. It’s most definitely not the easy option, as most people don’t enjoy the prospect of breaking up comfortable patterns and habits we have formed. The cost of inaction in our lives, or not choosing to win, is far greater than taking that big leap and seeking to win. The status quo is comfortable, but hardly a winning mentality.

How we define ‘winning’ though is different for all of us. It does not have to be achieving record sales, winning awards or making certain exponential growth. These can be what you want to achieve (or win at), but each individual has their own measure of what winning is. What’s important is that we push ourselves, stretch our boundaries and look for a positive outcome in all that we do.

This redefining of what success looks like to us allows us to see failures, not as losses, rather as new learning opportunities. When something is not achieved, or takes longer than the time frame you intended, it’s important to reflect and learn from them. Simply dropping it and moving on to something else is not good in the long run, because you are not spinning that ‘loss’ into a positive learning experience that you can use later.

Playing to win like this, whether it’s in our personal or professional lives, leads to fulfilment. This is the ultimate reward, the ultimate win. The feelings of fulfilment far outweigh any material reward and anyone would agree that a person who feels fulfilled in what they do is really the person who is ‘winning at life’.

This article is written based on the Simplifying Entrepreneurship podcast, Episode 18, where I interview Amy Smith around this topic. You can watch the full interview below.