# With Winning in Mind by Lanny Bassham: 4 Mental Habits I Stole for Business

> Source: [https://icharles.com/articles/with-winning-in-mind-by-lanny-bassham-4-mental-habits-i-stole-for-business](https://icharles.com/articles/with-winning-in-mind-by-lanny-bassham-4-mental-habits-i-stole-for-business) (canonical)
> Author: Chuck — iCharles, https://icharles.com
> Published: 2019-03-20 · Updated: 2026-07-07

## Why I picked this up

Lanny Bassham is an Olympic shooter, and his backstory is the reason I trust him. He tried every team sport as a kid and got picked last every time. His father finally told him: it's not that you're bad at everything, you just haven't found the one you're actually good at. That's the whole book in one sentence — stop competing where you don't belong, and once you find your event, winning becomes a system you can build, not a gift you either have or don't.

He calls his framework the Mental Management System, and it's the best breakdown I've read on what's actually happening in your head when you perform — or don't.

## The self-image problem no one sees coming

This is the single best passage in the book, page 37. Bassham describes a car salesman who normally sells five cars a month. One week, he sells four. Instead of riding that momentum, he sabotages himself for the next three weeks and barely sells one more. Why? His self-image is calibrated to five a month, and four in one week doesn't match the picture he holds of himself — so he unconsciously slows down until reality lines back up with the self-image. The reverse is just as true: sell one car in three weeks and you'll suddenly close four in the last week, because now you're behind your own self-image and your brain corrects for that too.

I caught myself doing this exact thing. I had an incredible month — training was on, prospecting was on, everything was clicking. Then, out of nowhere, I pulled back. Not from burnout, from self-sabotage. I wasn't focused on the process, I was reacting to my own success. Naming it while it's happening is the only edge I've found against it.

## "That's just like me"

The fix Bassham gives is simple: when you do something good, you have to secure it. Make one prospecting call, wake up early, eat right — whatever it is, say to yourself, "that's just like me." You're rewriting the self-image on purpose instead of leaving it to drift. It's a small habit, but it's the difference between a good day being an accident and a good day being evidence of who you are.

## Breathe out more than you breathe in

His breathing protocol is dead simple and I use it constantly now: breathe in for five, hold for two, breathe out for seven. The part that matters is breathing out longer than you breathe in — that's what pulls you out of fight-or-flight and into the parasympathetic state. I run this on the subway before client meetings when I feel the anxiety creeping in. It works in under a minute.

## Winning is a process, not a personality

Bassham is clear that winning isn't genetics. Tom Brady isn't genetically superior — he's just consistent in a way almost nobody else is. Motivation is irrelevant. What matters is removing every decision from your morning so the process runs itself. I know exactly where my bag is, my work clothes, my gym clothes, my headphones. My audiobook is already downloaded on an iPad that isn't even connected to the internet, so there's no scrolling, no decision, no friction. I don't think in the morning — I just execute.

## Track it or it isn't a goal

Goal setting only works if you're measuring it. "I want more money" isn't a goal. "$50 a week into savings, automated" is. I do this through Chase and Vanguard so it happens without me touching it. Same with work: I log every prospecting call into a Google Form that feeds a spreadsheet, so I know my daily and weekly averages and can adjust — more calls, or work referrals harder. I also track what time I get to the office. If you're not measuring it, you're not actually goal setting, you're just hoping.

## Who should read this

Anyone who's noticed they sabotage their own good stretches — in business, training, or anywhere else — needs this book. It's not a sports psychology book dressed up as business advice; it's a direct manual for catching your own self-image before it drags you back to average.