Brian Gubernick explains the difference between losing, a self-defeating mindset, and getting beat, when you're fully prepared but outmatched. He uses the Cardinals-Giants game as an example and introduces WIN (What's Important Now) and WIT (Whatever It Takes) as tools to identify which one you're facing.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off podcast where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Let's get into it. Today I'd like to discuss losing versus getting beat. Losing versus getting beat. I do not believe losing and getting beat are the same thing. These words are sometimes used interchangeably. But I'd like to define each as I share with my kids and, and my stance around how losing and getting beat are just two different things. In my mind, losing is to defeat yourself because maybe you believe you're not as good as the opposition, or you're inferior to another person or a circumstance or a situation or team. See, when you lose, in my opinion, you haven't done the things that it takes to win. And that's because your own mind has already defeated you. Now, getting beat, getting beat is to do all the things it takes to win, to not be intimidated, and yet you still do not win the game. You don't win the promotion. You don't win the situation. When you get beat, it usually is someone who performed better than you. At that particular moment. They were better prepared, or maybe they just wanted it more. So I really think that losing has a lot more to do with you in your mind, you being defeated, and getting beat is when the competition just outperformed you today. Now I think about my Arizona Cardinals who are about to have— all right, they're already having a difficult season. We're only a couple games in but they're going to have a really difficult year. Some of the games that they play, like the one they just played, uh, the other day, uh, against the New York Giants where they were winning, I think 21-0, and ended up losing the game 31-28 pretty much in the fourth quarter. They lost that game. They lost. They defeated themselves. They, they believed entering that game that they were inferior. I don't care what any, any of them say, any of the players say. They went— they're going into every game right now feeling like they're behind the 8-ball, feeling like they're inferior, feeling like maybe the team hasn't done the things it takes to win, and they've already lost the game in their mind. They've lost. Now, getting beat, getting beat would be them going in there knowing they're going to be competitive, knowing they're prepared, Knowing they had all the tools and the skills and the plays necessary, the players necessary to win, and then just getting outperformed on that Sunday. That's the difference. Now, in order to win, I think there's really two things that have to occur. The first has to do with the word WIN, using it as an acronym. WIN stands for what's important now. What's important now. So in order to win, it means you've always got to be doing what's important now. You got to be in the present. You don't worry about the past. You don't worry about the future. You focus completely on what you need to do to win in that particular moment. In addition to win, W-I-N, you need wit, W-I-T, which is what? Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. I'm not going to try to do something. I'm not going to simply give it my best. I'm going to do it. Your best may not be good enough. And simply trying actually gives you an excuse for losing, but doing whatever it takes provides that extra, you know, millimeter that leads to victory. So when you understand the principles of win, W-I-N and W-I-T. You can make a commitment to do the things it takes to win. And if you're at the bottom end of the score, if you've lost the score, you can then ask, well, did I lose or did I simply get beat? And when you get beat, you can form very clear ideas as to what to do next time. You could analyze why that person or team beat you. You can analyze, you know, maybe were they better with the basics? Did they hustle more? Now you know exactly what you need to do the next time. That's when you get beat, when you got outperformed. But when you lose, it has nothing to do with the other team or the other person. It only has to do with you. You've got to look inside and you've got to learn to focus on the basics of winning principles. So that's how I perceive losing versus getting beat and how I also look at what it takes to win by doing WIN, what's important now, and WIT, whatever it takes. So the focusing question for you today, where do these principles apply? What game are you playing right now? And are you losing? Are you getting beat? Are you on the path to losing and the path to getting beat? If in fact you're not winning, if you're getting beat, analyze the steps you're taking, the action items, your strategy, your tactics. If you're losing, look in the mirror, check your mindset, figure out what you've got to do internally before you can work on the external. What's important now and whatever it takes. Simple recipe to winning. How does this apply in your world? That's all we have for today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
