When You really want to, You act on it!

Chips are down, the odds are stacked up against you, and the only way for you is to fightback or stage a comeback. How many times do you like to make excuses saying that the chips were down, or you did not succeed because the odds were stacked up against you. Yes, you may have many instances to recollect, where you have given up – and that is because you wanted to, but there have surely been some occasions when you have risen to the occasion and surmounted the challenges to emerge triumphant. (we are not saying victorious!)

Some call this killer instinct, will power, determination, or the lack of it!
We tend to be ruled by schedules, may be half a work day, or full, a week, a fortnight, a month, a quarter, half year or a year. We resolve to do something, and embark on it, face a setback, and decide to take a fresh start – from the next session that we tend to determine. In such situation, it is like the resolve essentially gets squared, so if your achievement potential was 4 today, and you don’t succeed, and postpone it for tomorrow, then, you challenge is to surmount 16. Just imagine the task on hand, the time over-run on account of setback, and the fresh targets to be achieved along with the backlog, and hence the challenge not just doubling, but squaring up.

No wonder then, we face `fresh task blues’; weekly blues on resuming after a holiday; maybe a weekly blue for a quarter; and so on.

Sports is perhaps the best field to take inspirations from. An individual or a team reaches a hapless position, and everything seems lost. At that instant, something miraculous happens, and every factor beginning with morale, and determination, coupled with skill and ability suddenly transforms. A person in an individual sport – being nowhere in the reckoning, suddenly seizes the moment and makes that big leap into the forefront. Sometimes, it is a team that transforms itself for that brief period to produce a stellar performance towards the end and claw back into the game. Where did this focus come from? There was a sudden concentration on NOW! Or Never, and this translated into the transformation.

At such junctures, I wonder what must be going on in the mind of the the then leading person or team? A slight attitude of complacence – a feeling of having come so near, and just the final touches to be given, towards the goal, but getting drowned in the sudden avalanche of opponents morale. Just think of the some memorable sporting moments, and the individuals or teams sides you supported, and the swing of fortunes that made them winner or loser

This happens with you too in your life, because When you really want, you just go ahead and act on it, to get your desired result!

Are you proud to be a loser?

So, winners can be losers and losers can be winners. It all is a matter of attitude. As illustrated earlier, we all start as losers, but one is adjudged a winner. You may be the defending champion, so what! This is a new competition, a new arena, new rules, and hence new challenges. It is important for that person to get back to the original loser state and be hungry to prove themselves to the world again.

The biggest hurdle in this is perhaps the media hype that surrounds the so called winners. The media does it to dish out some so called interesting stuff for the couch potatoes, but this hype gets to the head of the champion and they already start behaving like winners, thus entering a state of over confidence and complacency.

Just take a look at most of the world championships (team sport or individual sport) and look at the upsets / surprises that you get. Most of the times the defending champions (winners) tend to be bitten or beaten by some underdog. Some stage a come back (our club of losers), while some stage shows (the so called illusionary winners). Sports, Entertainment, Politics and Religion -- there are examples you can narrate.

Taking a cue out of this, we are engulfed by Reality shows as couch potatoes and live it by the moment. Reality shows are churning `winners’ by the hour and they fade into oblivion in minutes, because the decision about their talent is made in seconds. Impulsiveness can never judge class (stuff) – for class (substance) is permanent.

The important lesson is to not get carried away and to keep persisting – yes we all want to win, but don’t get into the state of being winners – Proud to be a LOSER!