In today’s post I’m going to cover one of the most important keys to winning. I’ve had the fortunate experience of being exposed to several industries. I’ve been a personal trainer. I’ve been a television and film actor. I’ve been a salesperson. I’ve been a speaker on stage. I’ve been a coach. I’ve done so many different things and that has allowed me to understand how to quickly access your best abilities on command and instantly get your head in the game.

So today, I’m referencing acting.  When I was an actor, I was in an acting class and our teacher said to us, “Listen, when you guys get on set sometimes, you’re not going to be able to be totally present or generate the emotion you need to deliver on camera.”

Something that you may not know about actors, especially, when they are really strong, they’re not trying to fake cry or fake fall in love. They are trying to make the imaginary circumstances real.

Which means when they are able to really drop in and be totally present and bring you genuine emotion in that scene, even though it’s an imaginary circumstance.

But actors like every body else have bad days.

Imagine for a moment that you are the actor.  What if you show up on set and you simply cannot generate the anger you need? Or you simply can’t generate the joy or the happiness you need? Or you can’t generate the love you need? What do you do? There is a ton of money on the line, the production team is expecting you deliver and a whole crew of people on set are watching you and counting on you to deliver. Saying things like: “Come on. Get this done. We want to get the scene shot, time is money, what’s happening?”

How do you turn it on? How can you activate your best abilities on command when nothing seems to be working?

The key is, to have a trigger. A trigger for you to activate that emotion instantly. So a trigger could be you think of a certain moment in your history or you play a certain song or a smell certain fragrance that brings love up for you.

I’m sure you’ve had this experience before where you’re driving in the car, you’re having a bad day and all of a sudden your favorite song comes on. Then BAM, your energy and your mood are instantly fired up. A trigger.

Or you may have had this experience, like I have. You had a bad drinking bender on some particular alcohol years and years ago. So bad that you have never touched that same liquor for years. Then someone cracks open that bottle and you smell it and it puts you right back in that same horrific feeling of that moment.

To instantly get your head in the game, it’s about finding those triggers for you to activate love, joy, happiness, confidence, whatever it is.

In the case of winning, maybe you want to be motivated and driven and totally focused to make it happen for yourself. So the trigger could be a song for you? Or is it a way that you stand? Or is it how you tap your shoulders?

When I was an athlete, simply snapping my fingers would put me there and I would be ready to kick some ass. Does that make sense?

It’s finding those triggers for you. Find your triggers and you will find a way to win.