Winning Is a Habit

Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. —Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi was a football coach and Green Bay Packers general manager during the 1960s. He is remembered today for taking a struggling football team in 1959 and leading them to winning five championship titles across seven seasons. As head coach he had a very distinctive leadership style. He focused on the fundamentals, first and foremost. It didn't matter to him if you were a rookie, or played for the team that won last year's NFL Championship game. Each season he started by holding a football and saying to the team "Gentlemen, this is a football."

My dad growing up was a huge Packers fan. Football wasn't just something he enjoyed watching, rather he learned teamwork, leadership, and how to achieve goals from the game. It was these lessons he would pass down to me. When I was younger he instilled the importance of school and applying myself. Putting in the effort. Today I might not be as big of a Packers fan as he is, but I still remember those lessons from him, lessons that he learned from figures like Lombardi. 

Super Bowl I, the 4th of the 5 championship titles that Lombardi won during his career with the Packers. (image sourced from Wikimedia Commons)

In achieving any task in life it is critical to understand the fundamentals. This might sound incredibly basic or obvious, but it is a law of the universe. You can buy a good laptop, get into a good school, think about study schedules all you want, but if you don't actually get started on the homework, you are never going to pass. Fundamentals alone, however, are not enough. They require effort. Again, another basic concept. Lombardi believes in chasing perfection, and while acknowledging that you can never reach it, in the pursuit of it you will become excellent. You have to show up every day ready to give it your all, or nothing is ever going to get done. He was not satisfied with being "good enough." He wanted to win, and win he did. He believed that winning was a way of behaving all the time. 

These lessons from Lombardi helped guide me through my life. At my work, I show up every day prepared and ready to put in the effort that it takes. I want to win - ultimately get either a promotion or a better paying job - and I have to be the one to put in that effort, every single day. When I started my current job I came in ready to learn. I had only worked one job prior to that and I was very unfamiliar with starting things over. However, I showed up each day I worked ready to learn one new thing and apply myself each of those days. Within six months I understood all different parts of the job and was trusted in working alone and in training new employees. I didn't find success from a couple of really great days; I found it in the slow, methodical process of showing up, learning, and improving every day. 

I applied this same philosophy to finishing my bachelor's degree. College education is important to me and I'm the first in my immediate family to get the degree which means I have to figure all of it out on my own. The degree required me to show up for four years with a willingness to learn and apply myself. My first semester I didn't show up to every class and instead just tried to do the bare minimum. That approach didn't get me the grades I needed. I realized that I would need to come back around and apply myself starting in that second semester if I actually wanted to achieve it. 

Lombardi taught me that success does not come to those who wish for it, only to those who put in the work to achieve it. Whatever it is in life that I want to accomplish, I know I have to start with the fundamentals, show up every day, and keep improving. Winning can be a habit.