We have all experienced loss at some point in our lives. Maybe you failed a big exam and felt like your dream college degree was lost. Maybe it was a promotion you had been hoping for that slipped through your fingers. Maybe you got let go from a job that had meant everything to you. Maybe you lost someone who meant the world to you, and you wondered how life would carry on the same without them.

Now I want you to think about a time you won big. That moment your degree was handed to you during graduation. That moment you landed your dream job and all your hard work paid off. That moment your firstborn child was born, and your life was given a new purpose. Imagine that feeling of triumph, when you just wanted to scream from the rooftops that you finally did it.

Can you feel the victorious energy in your bones like you did on that day?

As much as losing hurts us, it makes those wins all the sweeter. Think about the most famous names of our time: Steve Jobs, Lance Armstrong, Bill Gates. All names that every person knows, all who had big losses in their careers before their success. Recently, I came across a viral video of a Fort Worth high School Football team who broke their 77-game losing streak.

Yeah, you read that right. The Diamond Hill-Jarvis Eagles High School football team won their first game in 8 years this week. In their first game of the season the players won 40 to 12, marking the end of their Losing Streak.

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After the big win for Diamond Hill, principal James Garcia had all of the players walk through the halls of the school to high-five and celebrate with their classmates and teachers. The song “Eye of the Tiger,” from the Rocky III soundtrack, blared over the school public address speakers, as the kids had their moment.

Losses can be soul crushing. But when your hard work pays off, and you finally get that win, the feeling is indescribable.

The key to reaching your goals is to take every loss and turn it into a learning moment. If you study the top 1% in any field, one thing that ties them together is they all learn from losses and come back stronger than ever.

If you can adopt this mentality that every time you lose, you learn, you’ll always have a growth mindset. The military recently did a study on the after-action reviews they give soldiers after combat. When soldiers who failed their missions had reviews on what went wrong, they were more likely to succeed in their next mission than soldiers who had successful missions. Think about that. The soldiers who failed learned more than the soldiers who succeeded. Just the same, you can turn every single loss into a learning moment that leads to more wins down the road.

FPG’s Warrior Selling Program transforms salespeople into certified sales warriors who live by this lose and learn mentality. You’ll learn not just the behaviors behind what top 1% sales pros do; you’ll also learn the beliefs those top 1% sales pros harbor that drive them to the top – and keep them there. By following our behavioral change process, you’ll remove your leashes, increase your performance and close more sales than ever before.

Here are 5 simple steps you can implement into your life right now that will give you this lose and learn mentality.

Every time you lose, tell yourself, “When I lose, I learn.”

As soon as you do that, you start the behavioral change process. If you don’t tell yourself that, you don’t have that total ownership mentality where it’s all on you, and you can figure out how to turn a loss into a win.

Identify and be grateful for what you’ve learned. 

Gratitude is the unyielding fuel for courage, so you want courage in order to improve and go to the next level. But in order to improve you have to identify what you’ve learned.

Make it a game.

Let’s say you’re in a slump, and you haven’t tasted a victory in who knows how long. Beating yourself up only makes the slump deeper. One thing I know about warrior sales pros is that they lighten up and make it a game. Adopt a growth mindset and strive to always be better than you were yesterday.

Constantly say, “Next time…” 

You don’t want to live in the past when it comes to achieving your goals. You want to learn from the past but always keep your eyes on the future. This is so powerful because you’re learning everything you can from that loss and then you’re mentally leaving it in the past.

Just focus on the next play. 

When it comes to achieving your goals, it’s all about one more step, one more adjustment Always think about, what’s that one more step you can take to move forward in the process.

Losses can be so painful that you’ll want to lose hope and give up. When you feel the hopelessness of a big loss creep in, reframe you’re your vision to see it as a learning experience. If you only think about the loss itself, then sure, you’ll feel beat down. But when you convert the loss into a learning moment, you’ll end up craving those opportunities to learn and grow.

Loss is inevitable, you’re going to lose before you win. Use these losses to fuel your journey to victory, and you’ll be amazed how much you learn along the way.

The post Lose, Learn, and Win: How a High School Football Team Broke Their 77-Game Losing Streak appeared first on FPG - Forrest Performance Group.