Below are 12 things winners know that you need to know. These are part of the mental game you need to master to become a winner at whatever you choose to do.

1. ACE (acting changes everything)

This one is so simple, but it’s key to being a winner. You’re sitting in your recliner watching YouTube videos on things you’re learning, and that’s great, but it’s not the same as getting up and doing it. Acting is about action, but it’s also about acting. Acting like you’re happy when you’re not, doing when you don’t feel like it.

2. Act the Way You Want to Feel (not how you do feel)

Having a crappy day, and the last thing you want to do is go for a run. Pretend you feel great and go, anyway. You’ll feel so much better if you do.

It’s like my writing. Most days I don’t feel like writing, but it’s how I make my living, so I grab my cup of coffee and a breakfast bar and go to my office. I take a sip of coffee and read a little of what I wrote the day before, and the next thing I know, I’m into the world and ready to write.

Acting confident will make you confident.

When I was younger, I was extremely shy (anyone who knows me now doesn’t believe it). The summer before starting college, I decided I was done with being shy and feeling out of place. In high school, I’d walk down the hall with my head down, so I didn’t have to say hi to anyone. I’d have been humiliated if I said hi and they didn’t say it back. When I started college, I was a new me. I walked with my head held high, and I said a genuine, “Hi” to people I recognized, and even those who just made eye contact. Next thing I know, I’m sitting at a table with a group of people I met in class. My entire life changed because I acted confident in public.

In my life out of school, I competed in horse events, and I was never shy about it. I didn’t know a darn thing when I started showing horses, but I listened and learned and practiced every single day. Acting instead of just sitting around thinking about it. I worked every day like I was going to win every class at the next show, and it wasn’t long before I was the competition. The girl others wanted to beat.

Can you think of a time in your life where you acted your way through a situation? And where you acted (physically) instead of just thinking about it? Share in the comments.

3. Losing Is Not an Option

There was a time when I just wanted to go compete, and I didn’t care if I won. It wasn’t when I was young, back then I was only going to win. My husband was a champion wrestler in high school and college, and he never went into a match thinking anything but that he was going to win. 8-time World Champion told me a few years ago, he never expected to come in second. If he did, why even bother going?

Don’t get me wrong, you’re going to lose. My husband lost, Fred came in second (or didn’t place at all), and Serena Williams doesn’t win every grand slam. If you want to get better, you need to compete at higher levels, and that means you’re going to lose, but you’re also going to level up, get better physically, and work your way to beating the best. The point is, even when you’re in the ring against the World Champion, you go in there and play to win, not just to not embarrass yourself. When you lose, you’ve actually learned if you’re doing it right. You don’t wallow in the loss; you learn from it and move on.

Are you feeling it? Did you know these things winners know that you need to know?

4. Confidence Is Your Choice

Remember how I said I decided not to be shy anymore? It was a choice. Winning is about confidence, and that confidence builds when you learn to respond. Maybe you won’t wake up one day and decide to be confident, but you can work at it. You get up every day, and you choose to be confident. You choose to deal with adversity confidently.

5. What Are Others Saying About Me?

Who cares? This isn’t about them. It’s about you, and your pursuit of living an elite life, being an elite business owner, or an elite athlete. When you do well, people will always try to bring you down. It’s what people without confidence do. They talk about others to make themselves feel better about their inadequacies. Don’t let what others think destroy your chance to be an elite performer. Stay in your own lane. Our Elite Life Mindset course gives you the tools to stay in your lane.

6. Winners are Made, Not Born

Just one more thing winners know that you need to know. You’re born average, you work to be elite. If you look around you, you’ll see that very few people have what it takes to pursue excellence. If they did, the competition would be much tougher. Most people are satisfied with average, but not you. If you were content, you wouldn’t be reading this article. You won’t have found this website.

At the end of the day, only you can do what it takes to have an elite mindset. No one can do it for you, and no one has the power to stop you unless you let them. Surround yourself with people who are better than you, and level up to their achievements. Be careful of the naysayers, because they don’t have your best interests in mind. They have their best interests, which is to keep you average. Champions are made. They are made of hard work, both physical and mental. Everyone can be a champion, but not everyone has what it takes to do the work.

7. Motivation is a Choice

Just like your confidence, motivation is in your hands (and head). You need to surround yourself with the things that motivate you and get you excited about your journey. It’s easy to get distracted. I know I got distracted this summer. And just last week I asked myself, “Do you really want this or not?” And I realized I want it. But this summer, I wanted to finish building our house more. We accomplished that goal, and now it’s time to get back to roping and riding daily.

To stay motivated, I surround myself with the right people. My coach, who is honest and encouraging, roping videos for mental imagery and visualization, a vision board, and I also keep a mini vision board on my lock screen for my phone. And every morning while my horses are eating, I practice roping on the dummy.

So surround yourself with things that motivate you. Take our course on Making a Vision Board. Leave Post-it notes to yourself on the bathroom mirror, in your car, in your licker. Keep your goals front and center. Find quotes you love, and tape them up, or even frame them and keep them in view.

Out of sight, out of mind. If you let your goals slip from your mind, you’ll let your motivation slip too.

8. Investing In Yourself Today Will Pay Dividends

The time to get started is now. Today is only here for 24 hours, and every hour you waste, you don’t get back. Your success is the sum of your today’s, and with each day your knowledge, strength and talent accrue. Learn to manage your time and set your priorities. Using a planner or journal is a great way to manage your hours, days, weeks, and months. Every today you let slip by is time you’ll never get back. So use it well.

9. Stop Counting the Days

Look, it’s hard not to look at the calendar and say, “I only have 32 days left until this huge competition.” But you shouldn’t be training, learning, mentally training for only that day. You need to make every day count as you set long-term goals. Where do you want to be at the end of the year, end of the season, or fiscal year? Make the commitment now, to make every today count. Your life and your career are the sum of the effort you put into the today’s.

10. What About Right Now?

What are you going to do today to get better, faster, stronger? Have you mapped out your goals, and what you need to do each day to achieve those goals? You know where you’re going, but right now, you only need to worry about the 200 feet in front of you.

What? 200 feet? When you’re driving, you only worry about the 200 feet of road in front of you. You aren’t thinking of the stop sigh a mile up the road. If you are, you’ll be distracted and may not make it to the stop sign.

Right now. What can you do today, right now, to work toward your goals? Have you mapped it out, so you know where those 200 feet are taking you? It’s so easy to get lost, maybe get sidetracked by a roadside attraction, but then you need to get right back on the road. For every exit you take, you’re that much further behind reaching your destination. Be in the moment when you’re working on your mindset, practicing your drills, learning a new skill. Stay within your 200 feet, and you’ll get to the top faster.

11. You Cannot Manage What You Do Not Measure

Planners and journals seem like a trivial thing, but if used correctly, they can help you navigate your way to an elite mindset, and an elite life. You can’t possibly remember everything about what you did and how you felt while training, learning, or doing mental exercises, along with everything else in your life. When you go to the doctor, they write everything down, so they know where the baseline is when you come for your next appointment. You should do the same as you move from average to elite. Lanny Bassham, an Olympic Gold Medalist, said, “You cannot manage what you do not measure.” He’s right. And he even lays out things to measure. Our Elite Life Planner/Journal is a 90-day journal for you to track and measure your practice, visualization, and improvements. Because I have horses, I also track their progress along with mine.

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12. You Are Your Biggest Fan and Your Biggest Competition

The last thing winners know that you need to know…Once you master your mental game, you’ll realize that the only person you need to worry about beating is the person you were yesterday. Part of journaling is measuring who you were yesterday, last week, last month, and seeing how far you’ve come. When you go to a competition, don’t worry about anyone else. People like to say, “It’s not all about you.” In this case, YES. IT IS.

I’ve given you 12 things winners know that you need to know. Now it’s your turn to get out there and start working toward being the best. Start now, start today. Don’t waste another minute.