Have you ever been guilty of second guessing yourself? I am sure you have; we all have at one time or another. Occasionally this second guessing or having those second thoughts about something turns out OK, but more often than not it doesn’t.

I'm sure there have been times when you made a decision to do something but before you actually did it, you had second thoughts. You then decided against it and this decision ended up being the right one. On the other hand, how many times have you ever second guessed yourself out of a what would have been a great decision for you? Those are the times when you could have, should have and wished you would have done something, but you didn't.

A would-be winner often laments "if I had only done this, if I had only done that - then I could have had this, I could have been that". Second guessing is sometimes only fear in disguise, hoping to paralyze you into taking no action and making no decisions.

The winners and would-be winners are separated by the manner in which they make or don't make decisions. The real winners choose their fate by their actions, while the would-be winners choose their fate by their lack of action. The winners make decisions, while the would-be winners don't. The winners commit to a plan of action, while the would-be winners are non-committal about almost anything and everything. The winners exhibit a do it now attitude, while the would-be winners procrastinate and put off any decision making as long as possible.

Whenever would-be winners finally make a tentative decision, they incessantly bounce back and forth, constantly second guessing themselves and repeatedly changing their minds over and over again. Winners are renown for making decisions and then sticking by those decisions. The winners put their plans into motion and rarely second guess themselves or their decisions. Is it any wonder why the winners take first place while the would-be winners settle for a second rate existence?

We need to repeatedly condition ourselves to make decisions right now. This kind of positive, personal performance conditioning requires us to commit to a game plan, put that plan into action and never second guess ourselves.

Second thoughts = second place and second place is never the right place for a winner.