6 Keys To The Champion's Mindset

The 6 Keys to the Champion's Mindset.

Key 1. The Decision
This is the moment when you tell yourself that you will achieve this, whatever it takes. It is a firm, strong, unalterable thought.

Key 2. The Goal Clarity
You know exactly what you want, how much, how it looks etc. You know you will get it - however long it takes. The goal inspires you to achieve it, no matter when.

Key 3. The Process
You figure out how to get it in the best possible manner. You figure out your strengths, areas to watch out for, help to ask, ways and means to learn how to do it better. You refine this until it all fits in your mind well.

Key 4. The Action
You cannot wait to implement the plan, to see it work as a whole. You can't wait to get up and go to work. You work like crazy as you give shape to your idea. You enjoy the process of seeing it come to shape.

Key 5. The Belief
You will take setbacks in your stride. You will not assign blame, excuse and give up. You will take the hit on the chin, go back to the job and restart again. How many ever times you fail, you will rebuild again from scratch. Even at the last dregs of your physical and mental strength, you will keep at it.

Key 6. The Growth Mindset
Once you do one job well, you carry the same mindset - of doing every job to the best of your abilities - to everything else. You look to make a difference. You seek to grow. In seeking excellence this way, you constantly put yourself out of your comfort zone. Growth is about change. It is about moving out of your comfort zone.

It is that then - a strong intent, a clear goal, the best way to get to it, a disciplined work ethic, an unshakeable belief and the courage to enter untested waters. This is what makes the champion long lasting, better than the others (because he puts in result-oriented effort), tough in the face of adversity, self-aware, clear, confident and resilient.  

Anjali - So Be Happy Na! (Or, enjoy the moment)

Anjali and I were playing a game of cards yesterday. It's a simple game where we keep throwing down one card each and the one who throws down the card that matches the earlier card gets the entire loot. Anjali explained the game - Shaukar-Bhikhaar. Also gave her impressions on how I normally don't win etc etc. (How did she know?)

Much to her surprise and mine, I started  winning heavily. She was pretty surprised at this. 'Wow' she said. 'You won Nannna.' I shrugged, hoping to make it easier on her. She was pretty severe on that reaction of mine. 

'So be happy na?' she said. 'You won.' 

Yeah, makes sense. 

My winning streak continued. I found myself getting more and more uncomfortable with these winnings, this complete greed. Would she feel bad? Seeing my discomfort she once again pointed out what was missing. 'Be happy na? You are winning.'

How often are we uncomfortable with winning with success, with abundance? How often do we try to downplay what we deserve? How many times have we rejected the flow of life because we do not want to offend the others (or what we think could offend the others)?

Soon Anjali lost all her cards. 'Now you have to give me half of yours,' she said simply. 'That's the rule. We must share if one of us gets everything and the other person loses.' 

So, she was pretty clear all through about that. No offence taken at losing. Mere amusement, that I was not able to enjoy my happy moments. 

I shared, as per the rules, and the game continued.

But you wonder how much you have turned away from what life was giving to you with these thoughts in your head. Of others, and how they would feel if you got more, and how it might upset your equation with them, of how you may be perceived as greedy - so much that you get unhappy, get head aches, get physically unwell, at the sight of success, at winning, at merely being yourself. But when you look back you realise that perhaps they might not be thinking all the things you have been thinking for them in your head in the first place. More importantly, it is easier to share and lift the others along with you with great positivity if you do accept all that comes to you with happiness. With gratitude.

No need to bend. No need to feel embarrassed. No need to take any less. Enjoy the win. Enjoy the moment. It gives you the space to share. To create. To add to the environment with imagination and freedom. Thanks Anjali. Huge lesson.

It's Complicated - Movie Review

It certainly is. Jane (Meryl Streep), meets her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) ten years at their son's graduation ceremony, and sparks fly. They start having a lusty affair, flab and cellulite and all and love it, unknown to their three children and Jake's young wife. The "affair" continues and Streep is thrilled that she is now the other woman to the other woman who had caused their divorce. Their affair has its ups and downs though. Streep is also seeing her architect Adam (Steve Martins), another divorcee, and her situation with Jake complicates things a bit. So after hot and cute romps in hotels, secret dates at their homes, marijuana and drinking binges,  the others eventually get to know - Adam, Jake's wife and the three children. Jake leaves his younger wife and moves in with Jane but who will Jane choose now - him or Adam?

With Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin, the film is elevated to another level altogether. Having older people having affairs is amusing and cute - it's always the same it looks like. Their bedroom scenes are brilliantly shot and done. Director Nancy Meyers is the maker of one of my all time favorites - Holiday - and several other acclaimed successes that are on my list such as 'Parent Trap', 'Something's Gotta Give' and 'What Women Want'. And I'd certainly not want to miss any of Meryl Streep's movies anyway.

Lincoln - Movie review

Lincoln is an epic.It draws you into a part of history that was so important and depicts how the 13th Amendment or the Anti Slavery Bill was passed. It shows the last four months of Lincoln's life when he brought the historic Bill into place. They were troubled times then - the United States fighting the Slave States - days of Civil War in the 1860s. the Civil War claimed more than 600,000 they say and much credit must go to President Lincoln and his team and all those right thinking people who backed and got slavery abolished in the US.

The movie is gripping. It's slow and intense and the political drama and shenanigans seep in. Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln is simply superb, a portrayal that won him the Best Actor Award at the Oscars. The film got 12 nominations and won two. Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Hal Holbrook - they are all brilliant.

How is it that Steven Spielberg comes up with such masterpieces across such a wide range of topics? Watch it in peace, when you have the time and the focus.

Bombay Talkies - Movie Review

This one is a must watch. A least three of the four films are simply out of the world. Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap and Zoya Akhthar soar high in this anthology of short films celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema. The one by Karan Johar falls flat and I didn't know what it was all about.

So thankfully we start with Karana Johar's movie about a young gay man who befriends his boss Gayatri and then hits on her husband. Turns out that the husband is also a closet gay. The two kiss - Randeep Hooda must get an award for kissing a man - and then beat each other up. What's it about? Do they love one another or do they not? Everyone is finally upset for some reason - the two men and the one middle aged woman. What were you trying to say KJ?

Now that's over we can sit back.

Dibakar Banerjee's story of a stage actor in Bombay, who gets a bit role in a movie with Ranbir quite fortuitously when he is pulled out of the crowd is stuff that makes you want to see it again and again. Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the once-upon-a-time actor, failed businessman, breeder of a single emu, and aspiring watchman, who perfects that shot of brushing past the hero inspired by a vision of his guru (regional newspaper, glasses and a superbly improvised 'Aye'). It is sheer ecstasy to watch the shot where he dramatises his story to his ailing daughter and she goes to sleep smiling. Fantastic stuff and one of those stories I will not forget. Ah, what can one not achieve if one aspires for excellence! Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

Zoya Akhthar's story of a young boy who loves dancing but who is forced by his father to toughen up, is sensitive and uplifting. Follow your dream says Katrina Kaif and the young boy does and the story culminates superbly when we see the boy transform from his awkward posture into a graceful dancer throwing off energy all around. Brilliant stuff again.

Anurag Kashyap brings Vijay from Allahabad with one murabba that his ailing father wants Amitabh Bachchan to take a bite from - so he can eat the other half and live long. Vijay discovers soon that its not as easy as he thought to get Amitabh to eat his murabba. Will he meet the superstar and get him to eat the murabba and will the blessed murabba heal his ailing father? Ah, bitter sweet, and leaves you laughing at yourself, at the frailty of our existence, our hopes, our emotions and desires.

Indian cinema is in good hands and I am really glad I am in these times. What amazing talent we have here and what a melting pot of creative excellence. Delicious. I just can't get to see more of the stuff that Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap and Zoya Akhthar make. KJ, sorry man, you don't belong in this company - not with that short film anyway.

Thought For The Day - What Makes You Happy?

I was wishing Medha on her birthday when this thought came up - what makes one happy? If pursuit of happiness is our goal then we must first find out what makes us happy. Do gifts make us happy, cakes and chocolates, new clothes...what what what? I guess this calls for a pen and a paper so we can quickly make a list of things.

Okay my quick list as they come to mind.

The External List (or the OMG! list)

• Good Food
• People who make me happy
• People who make me laugh
• Thoughtful Gifts
• Well fitting Clothes
• Unexpected Free stuff
• Genuine Compliments
• Going Out
• Travel
• People taking care of me

The Internal List (For I, Me and Myself)

• Nature
• Music
• Children
• Feeling free
• Achievement
• Solitude
• Love of Family, Friends
• Giving, sharing
• Uplifting deeds of others
•  Deep sleep

Still looks contrived. I don't know if all I wrote is really true. Needs a relook. I don't think I know what really makes me happy.



 

Crazy, Stupid, Love - Movie Review

A romantic comedy drama ? I don't know what to make of it but I did not really care for this movie too much. I am not sure if it is a comedy either.There are several people in love - in different kinds of love.

A married woman tells her husband she has had an affair with her colleague and he jumps off the moving car. While he is moping about his wife's affair loudly in a bar, a young Casanova helps him and tells him how to seduce women.

The middle aged man starts seducing women with his new found confidence with the Casanova's guidance. Unknown to him his young baby sitter has a crush on him. At the same time his thirteen year old has a crush on the baby sitter. If things were not complicated enough one of the women that the middle aged man seduces is the English teacher of his son.

It finally turns out the the Casanova has also fallen in true love - but with someone that his pupil - the middle aged Casanova does not fully approve of. Oh, and meanwhile, the young thirteen year old son, is teaching his father how not to give up when he loves someone. The 13 year old turns out to be the star of the show finally. Anyway it ends with a school ceremony and speeches and stuff like that which did not appeal to me too much. It did appear to me like any of the Telugu movies we see these days.

Not my cup of tea. I was totally misled by the title. And yes, its the 40 year old virgin again, Steve Carell, in the middle aged man's role. Sorry guys, didn't work for me.