The Winner Effect
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Hey Reader,
You know that feeling when you’re just… on?
Like everything you touch works and momentum carries you forward without effort?
Now flip it.
When’s the last time you felt stuck in your head, procrastinating on everything, telling yourself “I’ll start Monday” for the fifth week straight?
You’re in one of those cycles right now. And I can prove it.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth most people ignore: which cycle you’re in isn’t random.
There’s actual science behind why some days you feel like you can conquer the world and others you can barely answer emails.
What follows might change how you see momentum forever.
What Is The Winner Effect?
It’s one of those concepts you intuitively sense, then someone puts words to and it all clicks. OH… THAT’S WHY…
You want the good news or the bad news?
Good news first: Winning once makes you more likely to keep winning.
If you’ve won before, you’re about twice as likely to win again. Prior winners take 67% of the next contests. That’s from a meta-analysis of 168 studies across different species btw.
Winning literally rewires your brain.
Couple examples:
When Mike Tyson got out of jail, they matched him against “tomato cans”—easy knockouts. A few quick wins built momentum… and BOOM… World Heavyweight Championship.
This one was interesting: London stock traders. Their testosterone shot up 20-30% on winning days. Even crazier: morning testosterone levels actually predicted that day’s profits. We’re talking measurable biology here.
Now the bad news: it works in reverse too.
Something goes wrong, you get discouraged, which makes it harder to work, causing results to suffer. Classic losing cycle.
I lived this not too long ago. Lost my job, moved back to mom’s basement, fresh out of a two-year relationship (dumped), 30k in debt, nine months of Seattle rain.
Every day was the same: wake up, stare at the computer screen, think “I’m supposed to build a business… where do I even start?“
The losing cycle was too strong. I was so unmotivated that it was unmotivating.
Honestly? Not sure why I kept going. But I did.
FINALLY, one of my videos went viral.
That was my first win. My tomato can. Proof that this was possible.
That single breakthrough triggered a ten-year obsession. Didn’t stop until I hit 1M subscribers.
I’ve felt both cycles. What follows are my three best moves to escape the losing cycle or if you’re winning, how to keep that thing CRANKING.
The 3-Move System That Flips the Script
1. Track Micro-Wins Daily (The Foundation)
This changes everything.
Write down five wins every single day.
Doesn’t matter how tiny:
- Made your bed? Win.
- Deleted 50 emails? Win.
- Sent that text you’d been avoiding for weeks? Win.
- Showed up to the gym even though you were tired? Win.
- Called your mom who says you never return her calls? Win.
Ditch the mindset that “winner” means landing a promotion or hitting seven figures. Your brain responds the same way to small victories.
Do this and you’ll start noticing wins everywhere. It’s like when you’re thinking about buying a Ford Bronco and suddenly every third car is a Bronco.
Your brain’s pattern-recognition system kicks in and starts hunting for more wins in your life.
That’s cool.
I keep a “Wins Log” in the back of my journal. Been doing this for months and it’s genuinely shifted how I see my days.
Journaling itself is one of the best ways to tap the winner effect. You get to see your patterns not just of your past week or month, but years or even decades.
Want to start but don’t know how? Pick up a any blank journal and start today. You can join our program and learn the whole system in under an hour here.
Bottom line: start tracking your wins.
2. Proximity to Winning (The Amplifier)
Here’s more good news: you don’t even have to be the one winning to get the neurochemical boost.
Soccer fans’ testosterone shot up 38% when their team won. Just watching winning affects your biology.
How to tap this:
- Surround yourself with people crushing it
- Follow creators who inspire you instead of making you feel behind
- Flip jealousy and envy into excitement that it’s possible for you too
My personal favorite? Read biographies.
These are like 600 pages of how someone won.
I’ll never forget how inspired I felt after finishing the Steve Jobs biography. The stories about him building Apple, getting fired form his own company, how he viewed design, etc all stick stories with you and change the way you make decisions.
Pro tip: download the audio version and listen on a walk. You’ll get 10k steps, fresh air, and feel like a winner all at once.
3. Strategic Win Design (The Multiplier)
Here’s where most people mess up: they wait for wins to happen instead of architecting them.
A rocket uses 90% of its fuel just to get into orbit. The start is hardest because you get the least wins for the most energy. But once you build systems… habits… stack some wins… LIFT OFF.
Smart win design means:
- Goldilocks goals: challenging but achievable (not too easy, not impossible)
- Habit stacking: “After I pour coffee, I’ll write yesterday’s 3 biggest wins”
- Process wins over outcome wins: research shows 3x better long-term performance
You’ve probably experienced momentum magic. Maybe a day off where your to-do list looked massive, but you knocked out the first thing, then the second, then the third… and suddenly you’re done with hours to spare.
Your brain doesn’t know the difference between something you vividly imagine and actually experience. (Ever watch parkour tricks and feel your hands sweat?)
So start designing those wins. Track them religiously. Surround yourself with winning energy. Because you’re already in one of two cycles.
Time to choose which one.
What’s your biggest takeaway? Hit reply and let me know. I make an effort to read every single one.
See you next week
CK
