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Have you ever wondered what transforms an ordinary human being into a winner, or what variables are at play to create a personality with a solid unwavering sense of integrity? Have you ever noticed how being around a highly esteemed and truly successful person seems to make you a winner, too, or how a true winner is quick to share the limelight with those around them?

1. Winners know that self-esteem is the most important and basic quality of a successful life and all winners have a strong sense of self as their main ingredient.

2. Winners are emotionally healthy individuals with a distinct feeling of personal worth that is cultivated and nurtured to sustain them through good times and bad.

3. Winners are aware that self-esteem is actually a habit that can be learned through diligence and practice. In fact, self-worth and self-confidence are characteristics that most winning personalities were not necessarily born with. The word 'esteem' literally means to appreciate the value of. Developing a positive self-image is a life-long process that starts as simply as making a conscious effort to upgrade our lifestyle, and pay more attention to personal appearance and personal habits.

4. Winners achieve and maintain a healthy self-image by simply and objectively seeing where they are now and where they would like to be, and then mapping out a plan by creating short-term and long term goals. And inch by inch, they're on their way.

5. Winners and top achievers have risen from out of the ashes of extreme poverty and despair. Those who have pulled themselves up, and remain successful, all share positive self-imaging as a common denominator, with background having little, if anything, to do with it.

6. Winners accept themselves and understand how self-acceptance accounts for a successful and dynamic life. The willingness to be one's authentic self and live one's life as it unfolds, accepting all responsibility for the ultimate outcome, is also a major factor in developing a winning personality. And although winners are always seeking some form of improvement, they can accept themselves just as they are right now.

7. Winners accept their own uniqueness, are comfortable with their image, and are willing for others to know and accept them as well. Such people naturally attract friends and supporters. He or she seldom has to stand alone.

8. Winners do not live in the past. They view themselves in terms of their abilities, interests and goals, and they build confidence through their successes. Winners have the confidence to create success and the success necessary to create confidence. In other words, success breeds success.

9. Winners focus on past successes and forget past failures. They use errors and mistakes as a way of learning, and then they dismiss them from their mind. To establish true self-esteem, we must concentrate on our successes and look at the failures only to implement corrective measures for future success.

10. Winners forgive their failings by understanding that character is formed through adversity. Life is a series of obstacle courses that build strength when coupled with drive and determination. The old adage that adversity builds character is not just a catchy phrase but is clearly illustrated by noting just how many highly successful and loving parents gave extreme abundance and comfort to their children, only to raise children with weak and sagging characters.

11. Winners indulge in positive self-talk as an important key to permanent enhancement of self-esteem. Every waking moment we must feed our mind positive thoughts so relentlessly and vividly that our self-image, in time, is modified to conform to the new, higher standard.

12. Winners can graciously accept compliments. One good indicator of an individual's opinion of himself is the way he accepts a compliment. It is incredible how low-achievers belittle and demean themselves when others try to pay them value.

13. Winners are aware of their potential, like who they are, and are eager to consider the well-being of others as they do their own.

14. Winners base their actions and decisions on rational thinking rather than on reactions and emotions. They understand that to react emotionally in response to challenges is to nullify the wisdom and power of the rational mind.

15. Winners are able to enjoy their emotions as children do, probing the depths of their love, excitement, joy and compassion; but winners make the decisions that shape their lives through forethought, logic and common sense.