The Five Levels of Mental Toughness, which is a tool to help people determine at what level they are performing.
The first level is called Playing Not to Lose, which is doing just enough to avoid getting fired.
The next level up is Playing To Cruise, which is mentally cruising through the job without really engaging in any
serious thought.
The next level is Playing to Improve, which is when performers begin to actively engage their thoughts and feelings in the task at hand, attempting to get better.
The level above this is Playing To Compete, which is when performers begin to believe they are capable of beating out their competition and being the best. This level is primarily ego-driven where winning is the main objective. Performers operating at this level often become very successful and powerful, but are sometimes left with hollow feelings of “Is this all there is?”
The highest level is Playing to Win, which occurs when the performer moves from competition to creation, where the primary goal is to be the best they can be.
Knowing that creativity and fear cannot co-exist, these people are competing only with themselves with the objective of being better today than they were yesterday. The Playing to Win philosophy is rooted in a spirit-based consciousness operating from thoughts of love and abundance. Fear and scarcity have no place at this level of thinking. These performers are fearlessly seeking what Dr. Abraham Maslow referred to as Self-Actualization, or becoming all that one has the potential to become. The most powerful belief performers operating at this level possess is that they cannot fail; they can only learn and grow.
