Sometimes, Winning Just Feels… Off
I dunno. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m tired. But lately, some of these “wins” I used to chase so hard… they feel kinda hollow. Not bad, exactly. Just—off. Weirdly quiet. Like I crossed a finish line and no one noticed. Not even me.
Last week, big client I’d been following up with since, what, January?—finally signs. Should’ve been a big deal. Old me would’ve been doing cartwheels (not literally—I’ve got a bad knee). But instead, I just sat there staring at the email. No fireworks. No music. Just… me and the cursor blinking like it was judging me or something.
I think maybe we sometimes mistake momentum for meaning.
Back when I found Donald Hendon’s work, what hit me wasn’t the tactics (though they were sharp). It was his vibe—kind of old-school, sure, but real. Like he gave a damn about what actually makes people tick. Not just “how to win” but what winning actually means. Mentally. Emotionally. Like, under the hood.
He once said (I’m paraphrasing badly), that winning starts in your head. And I think mine’s been a mess lately. All noise. Less meaning.
I’ve been treating business like it’s a checklist. Hit numbers. Close leads. Automate. Track. Optimize. And yeah, that gets results. But it also drains the soul a bit if you’re not careful. At least it did for me.
Honestly, I wasn’t gonna write this. Felt too personal. Too scattered. But maybe that’s the point. Not every post needs to be polished like a LinkedIn brag fest. Sometimes a blog’s just a place to unload the mental junk drawer and hope someone out there goes, “Yeah… same.”
One of Hendon’s quieter lessons—between the lines—was that people are messy. Emotional. Illogical sometimes. And if we forget that, in business or anywhere else, we’re not actually influencing anyone. We’re just… selling to ourselves.
So, yeah. Got the client. Hit the goal. But the celebration part? Still waiting on that to show up.
Maybe next time I’ll remember to let myself feel it. Or maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll mess it up again. But I think that’s part of it too.
If you’re reading this and wondering why your “wins” don’t feel like they used to—hey. Me too. It’s okay. You’re okay. We’ll figure it out.
That’s all I’ve got. No tips. No CTA. Just brain noise with a few links.
Thanks for sticking around.
—J.