If you are amidst competition in your field, you have to stay on top of what you aspire to achieve. And, when the path to the destination is a long drawn one, it is not advisable to spend your energy before it is absolutely necessary.

 

While competing at the highest level, the resolve of all competitors is equally top-notch. What matters at this level, is the judicious use and timely exposure/disclosure of one’s resources or faculties. It is akin to preserving one’s winning hand until the very end.

 

Let us take the example of a 5000 metre track event in a competitive setting. In most cases, one who wins in the end does not start off as a leader in the race. Victories by leaders who lead in a race from start to end are either very few and far-between, or are characterized by weak or no competition.

In majority of the cases, the ultimate winner is not so obvious to the observers. Does that mean that an underdog has a better chance to win? No, not exactly. Rather, it indicates that a lot more goes into ensuring a winning performance in a competition than meets the eye.  

 

To better understand this phenomenon, let us analyze the 5000 metre event. It is a very challenging event in athletics both in terms of distance as well as the intensity of sustained effort that needs to be packed into it.

 

Closely watch how seasoned professionals run this race. A champion’s approach is somewhat similar to the following: -

Phase 1 - Initial assertion: A champion starts strong so that he/she forms the leading pack. Also, when the champion breaks away from the crowd early in the race, it ensures that he/she does not have to get bogged down by inhibiting factors that result in loss of momentum at the very start. These are generally experienced as elbow-pushing and toe-stepping manoeuvres that tend to waste a lot of time and energy of those who subject themselves to this ordeal.

Phase 2 - Gauge the competition: This is a continuous exercise. It is essential to gauge what sort of calibre one is pitted against in the leading pack. A champion needs to re-evaluate every time an additional competitor joins the leading pack. This evaluation is pivotal to planning and launching one’s winning effort. The members of the leading pack carry out continuous assessment by testing others’ mettle in spurts from time to time. This manoeuvre lasts the longest and it eventually separates the men from the boys. In other words, this gruelling tussle results in the not-so-good ones falling out of the leading pack by and by. A point to note here is that, in a closely contested event, a clear leader in this phase may not be in an ideal position to gauge others’ moves accurately. And, that is why; this apparent leader is more likely to miss out on the constant evaluation of the competition around him/her.

 

 

Phase 3 - Finish strong: The evaluation phase (Phase 2) helps the champion to determine who his/her real competition is. Thus, a champion focuses on those and does not worry about the rest in the last phase. Usually, in the last lap, one invariably finds a few who break away from the leading pack as well. Needless to say, the timing of breaking away from the pack is very important. Ideally, it should be the distance over which the breaker (potential champion) can sustain the lead till the finish.

Now, if you liken a champion’s approach to how you should be approaching a competitive scenario, you would realize that the execution of 3 phases above needs a lot of preparation and homework. Please do not shy away from preparing yourself, or else, you may not find yourself lasting long enough in the leading pack.

 

At this moment, I feel the imperative need to acknowledge that this is not the only approach that guarantees success in the end.

 

Last, but not the least, here are some principles you must consider before you subconsciously saddle yourself with all undertakings as competitive activities: -

• Know that competition applies to only those scenarios where more than one participants fight/compete to achieve a single common objective. A company offering similar product/service as yours is not your competitor if it operates outside the area of interest of your company. 
• Not all development/improvement efforts should be treated as a race. Like, do not compete with your team-mates while working as a team. 
• Irrespective of the state of your preparation, do not underestimate your competitors as they may have prepared equally well.
• Apart from planning, preparation and a systematic approach, tenacity helps.
  

 

When I started this blog more than a year back, I urged you (and I continue to urge you) to ‘Go, Get Your Gold Medal’.

In my opening post ‘What is this blog about?’, I had asked everyone to make the “right and intense effort” to go for the gold without any malicious intent towards anyone. Moreover, your ‘Gold’ does not have to compare with anyone’s ‘Silver’ or ‘Bronze’.  Your ‘Gold’ is what ‘You’ want to achieve, not what you want to achieve before others do.

Yesterday, I got a chance to witness John Wooden speak on true meaning of success.

For those who do not know who John Wooden was  – “Born in 1910, Coach John Wooden was the first person to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame both as a player and coach, while ESPN ranks him as the greatest coach of all time, across all sports. He died on June 04, 2010.”

John Wooden, affectionately known as Coach, led UCLA to record wins that are still unmatched in the world of basketball. Throughout his long life (100 years, to be exact), he shared the values and life lessons he passed to his players, emphasizing success that’s about much more than winning. And, winning is much more than scoring!

So, when I listened to him, I found the very words that corroborated my definition of success. This is what he said about success: -

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.”

One belief you must rest assured with, is that, it is difficult for others to judge if you are successful or not. Much like the ‘coach’ says, “I think it's like character and reputation. Your reputation is what you are perceived to be; your character is what you really are. And I think that character is much more important than what you are perceived to be. You'd hope they'd both be good. But they won't necessarily be the same.”

So, stop judging your own character through the eyes of others (who actually form your reputation).  

And, do not look at the scoreboard, because that’s not where your ‘Gold’ is.

Here is another sportsman, George Moriarty, a Major League Baseball umpire, who has this to say about success: -

 

The Road Ahead or the Road Behind

 

"Sometimes I think the Fates must grin

as we denounce them and insist

the only reason we can't win,

is the Fates themselves that miss.

Yet there lives on the ancient claim:

we win or lose within ourselves.

The shining trophies on our shelves

can never win tomorrow's game.

You and I know deeper down,

there's always a chance to win the crown.

But when we fail to give our best,

we simply haven't met the test,

Of giving all and saving none

until the game is really won.

Of showing what is meant by grit;

Of playing through when others quit.

Of playing through, not letting up;

It's bearing down that wins the cup.

Of dreaming there's a goal ahead;

Of hoping when our dreams are dead;

Of praying when our hopes have fled.

Yet losing, not afraid to fall,

if bravely we have given all.

For who can ask more of a man

than giving all within his span.

Giving all, it seems to me,

is not so far from victory.

And so the fates are seldom wrong,

no matter how they twist and wind.

It's you and I who make our fates –

we open up or close the gates

on the road ahead or the road behind."

The dreams that you honor and want to pursue, you need to keep those in sight at all times.

Dreams that are achievement-oriented do not come true in a flash. You need to work at them. Every small action of yours in the current time contributes to the bigger picture of the future, with or without your intention.

That is why, for your immediate or short-term plan to be of some consequence, it should be in line with what you want to achieve in the long-term.

Here comes the dilemma...

On most occasions, we do not have a long-term plan. We do not always take time to 'dream' far out in the future that gives us something to work towards!

When you have dreamt well enough, and you know where you want to go, you need to figure out the 'route' to get there. You must be able to mark the 'route' with milestones that are relatively smaller targets to keep you on course leading to a bigger objective.

As you proceed, the milestones that are nearer are easier to 'see' and assimilate.  Those farther away on the timeline are still 'fuzzy' until they come nearer with time. But how do you always know you are moving in the right direction? Well, you don't, until you develop this art.

This art is based on the ‘Principle of Abstraction’.  The mechanism and practice of abstraction reduces and factors out details so that one can focus on a few concepts at a time.

Let me recount to you a fun exercise I indulged in a few months back. Last winter I had planned to drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Although it is the straightest and the easiest route one can drive on, I thought of getting an 'overview' of my journey with Google Earth software. Those familiar with Google Earth would know that this software has the ability to show the route from one point to another at various scales. A route spanning multiple cities or states, can be shown as a stretch of about 6 inches or less on your desktop by 'increasing the view-altitude'. As you reduce the altitude, you reduce the scale and can 'zoom in' to see details of the route at various levels.

I chose to 'fly' over the route using Google Earth. While I was flying, I would often raise the altitude (zoom out) to check if the direction in which I was moving was leading me to my destination. This is the very essence of planning!

If you can zoom out to get an overview of next 5 years, you have a planning horizon of 5 years. With practice and focus, one can learn to set one’s sights on the coming 10 or even 15 years. Let us say if you plan for the next 15 years, you should also develop the ability of ‘zooming in and out’ to gauge how the next 10 years, the next 5 years and the next 1 year look like. Does what you are doing now lead you to where you want to go 5, 10 and 15 years from now?

Remember the more you ‘zoom in’, the more you are obligated to carve the details. The more you ‘zoom out’; the better is the bird’s eye view of the path you have undertaken, and the higher is the ‘Level of Abstraction’. The ability to zoom out to see the bigger picture is the ability to achieve higher abstraction.

This practice of abstraction helps you to vet your plan for its relevance and efficacy on a number of planning horizons i.e., a look-ahead level of 1 or 5 or 10 or 15 years!

Once you realize the importance of maintaining a rolling window of planning horizons, it will be easier for you to spell out the near-term and long-term objectives.

Take time to ruminate on this concept, and stay tuned for my next post in which I will run an illustration of this concept.

Until then, stay strong!

When you take on a new challenge you need to be mindful of not wavering on your way to achieving your goal.

In my last post “When It All Becomes Too Much to Handle... “, I had talked about reserves of energy that we all abound in. 

The very fact that these reserves may be wrapped in layers of comfort, support, self-preservation and resignation, the comfort of keeping them under the wraps lends itself to many excuses along the way.

The key to success lies in coming out of this comfort zone and exposing oneself to the ‘unknown danger’ that only lurks in one’s mind. One of the techniques of unwrapping reserves is to hold yourself to the promise that is required of you. As long as you are the only one who knows about your resolve, you have a convenient outlet to ‘un-commit yourself’ on the slightest pretext.

What if more people knew about your undertaking? You will acknowledge that ‘abandoning your program’ would not be as easy if that was the case. This is exactly what you must do to keep yourself on course!

Yes, make a commitment to the whole world or more specifically, to the people who matter to you in your life.

Here is the best example from our recent past. In the Summer Olympics of 2008, there was one athlete, Michael Phelps, who had set a personal objective to win 8 gold medals. When the burden of promise of a single Olympic gold medal weighs so heavily on an individual, imagine what Michael Phelps must have felt under the weight of his own commitment.

But, what followed set Michael on a more resolute march towards his target. The intention, that is, Michael’s personal target of 8 gold medals, was released to the whole world through the media and that in a way, must have coaxed Michael Phelps not to waver and keep his promise in the end!

Not only individuals, this technique seems to work well with larger groups, and nations as well. We have one example from recently concluded Winter Olympics of 2010. The host nation, Canada, concluded the games with the most number of Gold Medals in the history of Winter Olympics. Canada had started an ambitious program called "Own The Podium" years before the event, and they had made it known to the whole world. By jove, it did deliver in the end!

What I am going to talk about today is that moment in our life when we feel too overwhelmed or tired or simply bored of what we had been doing for a protracted period.

This feeling of exhaustion or tiredness or boredom may result from a number of factors, some of which are: -

·         Monotony

·         Sustained degree of difficulty in what we undertake

·         Our own state of fitness or alertness

·         Age

·         Sickness

·         Emotional setback

·         Disruptions (circumstantial or intentional)

In colloquial terms, some of us may like to term this condition as ‘burnout’.  Let me admit that I am not an expert to either define or diagnose ‘burnout’. So, I will steer clear from taking on the role of a psychiatrist.

Let us not deny ourselves the fact that success is not served on the platter, and in most cases, it demands unprecedented effort if we want unprecedented results.

What we all have to accept is that quest for excellence asks for unwavering devotion and a high degree of resoluteness.

Now, when you take up the challenge and sometime later, you confront this condition that mars your progress, you need to do something about it.

Let us examine this condition deliberately. Firstly, when you are in it, it seems difficult to find a way out. Moreover, you get a sense that you have been going it alone for a long time and you need some moral support.

Let us be aware that we are all gifted with an unending reserve of energy which resides within us in multiple sachets each individually wrapped in many layers of comfort, support, self-preservation and resignation.  

Here are some instances when you might have found yourself suddenly tapping these reserves sub-consciously: -

·         When you realized that your destination was nearer than you thought...

·         When you became truly aware of the value of incentive(s) at the end of a long road...

·         When you found evidence of someone else successfully performing a feat similar to what you are attempting...

·         When the upkeep of your promise reigns higher in your mind than the pain you are going through...such as, your attempt to achieve a goal for the direct/indirect gain of your dear one(s)

·         ...and so on.

 

Now that you have probably come to realize some of the ‘tools’ that can help you ‘unwrap’ these pockets of energy, here are some of the generic ways you may adopt to ‘keep going when the going gets tough’: -

·         Divide your bigger task into smaller and manageable chunks of effort that you can record as ‘completed’ more often and that help you determine how much closer you are to your destination

·         Identify the perceived value addition in return of your effort. Note/list/enumerate it and constantly remind yourself of that value while working towards securing it

·         Study the field of your undertaking for similar precedents in history (but only those that were successful in the end)

·         Make a promise so noble that enables you to see gains beyond yourself at all times

 

I will dwell more on the aspect of steadfastness in my future post “Make a Commitment to the Whole World!” as well.

Stay tuned.

 

As a learnt behaviour, tenacity needs to manifest itself in the actions performed by us.

I am sure there must be 1001 ways to ignite the “fire in the belly”. But, the one that is relatively more intuitive for those interested in consciously developing this trait is, by subconsciously injecting it in their ‘plans’!

So, it needs little emphasis that you need to have a plan that is both good and workable (I will dwell more on ‘planning’ in my posts to follow later...). 

For your plan to be called ‘good enough’ to lead to actions towards definite objectives, you would always need a ‘critical eye’ (not yours but of other person(s)) to evaluate your plan on a continual basis while you plan/re-plan to achieve those objectives.

Since you are expected to be always ‘married’ to your plan, an objective evaluation by another party will assure you of the ‘soundness’ of your plan. If not sound enough, the same evaluation will lead you to improve your plan.

A good plan makes optimal use of resources that include your time and capacity.

With an assumption that your ‘good plan’ does not leave you any slack, try and achieve more than the objectives set in your plan always and every time. The resulting actions thus, will start showing a streak of tenacity, before you realize.

I know most of you would retort, “Was it this simple?”

Please do not get unduly perturbed. The solution is really this simple!

The execution needs some practice, though.

Successful businessmen apply this technique very effectively. They always actively look for opportunities that will help them exploit the situation to their advantage. If they merely follow a plan, they are not likely to be as tenacious when an opportunity presents itself! The urge to over-achieve ensures tenacity in good measure!!

REMEMBER [From the teachings of Karate]

The punch that packs the maximum power is, not the one that is directed on the stomach but the one that is launched with an intention to break the spine!

                                                                   


The less said, the better. The pictures below speak for themselves!


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