Thought for the Day - Success is an Organised Mind, an Organised Mind leads to Disciplined Effort

I remember one of my early mentors on the writing journey Mr Rajan Bala asking me what good writing was all about. I had no clue so I said something like creativity. He shook his head and said - 'a well organised mind' or rather 'the ability to organise your thoughts well'. It really changed my approach to how I understood writing.

These days when I speak with young cricketers or students I can see that the difference between the ones who are good and the ones who are not is just that - how well organised their thoughts are. They are all capable of hard work but are very unclear about how to go about it. Success is that way a very mental construct to begin with - the ability to see through, to organize the effort, to see what's working and what's not and working on those areas. 

Organise your mind. Set a goal, see where you are, see the entire journey in your mind, work out the grey areas, the tough parts. And work accordingly. It requires thinking, just going past the haze, the fear of seeing things clearly. Whatever it is, see the picture clearly, the way you want it, big or small. For example, instead of stressing over writing a bestselling book and never starting to write, see the joy that writing gives you - an article, a blog post, a scene. That way one can move from fear to excitement - it's a personal journey. 

And things then fall in place. When you organise the mind, you can organise your effort. Nothing can stop disciplined effort.

Acts of Love - Walking Together

A hot afternoon. An elderly couple. The lady with a walking stick. The man stopping to keep pace with her. 

 Telling her something animatedly. Keeping her engaged as they proceed slowly. Heat and their age and discomfort notwithstanding. An act of love. 

Talk at Jaisimha Cricket Academy to Young Cricketers

Ramakanth invited me to talk to the young cricketers training at the Jaisimha Cricket Academy before the season started. The group was about 40 with some boys playing for my old club which gave me so much of my identity and shaped me as a person - MCC - and some young trainees. Chetan and Ramakanth were around to help as was Ann.

 

We discussed the route to succeed as cricketers and humans - playing for the team, helping the team win and not just focusing on one's own performance. This would help in taking pressure of performance and even help in improving performance. 

We discussed the idea of the Why which is having a clear purpose, an understanding of the How which includes the Values and Processes and the What which is their goals. On the purpose we decided to keep Team Win as a good option. 

We discussed Values and the boys came up with values such as effort, honesty, team work, dedication, discipline etc. We discussed that values are shown through behaviors and not through words. We added the value of Growth or Learning Mindset to the above and I explained how a learning mindset can lead them to success. Effort, learning a new thing everyday, asking for help, setting bigger targets, getting process orientation were discussed. Arnav said he had read the book by Carol Dweck which was impressive. 

We discussed the importance of preparation - on physical. Skill and mental aspects. How they should know the standard, know where they are, and work towards that in a disciplined manner. Another formula for Performance was Potential minus Interference. We discussed the various kinds of Interference that messes with the performance.

In process we discussed the concept of deliberate practice and how they have to practice in a manner that they improve one skill at a time and practice that. I gave them the example of how Kapil Dev would decide that he would bowl only outswingers and bowl only that. The idea is to deliberately plan what to do in the session and practice that with full involvement of the mind and body. Like a bowler can plan to bowl only one delivery or a batsman can plan not to get out etc. Another important thing is to learn one thing everyday, take process feedback from coaches and measure progress. One thing they got was the idea of strengths and weaknesses and how n one should really strengthen their strengths because that is what will take them forward. Work 80 % on strengths and 20% on weakness. 

We did a small exercise on goals and they wrote some goals for the season and for their career. They asked some good questions on how to come back from a bad patch, how to handle disappointment etc. We collected some feedback and took a group pic with Vidyuth, Chetan, Ramakanth and the boys. Quite satisfying and I hope they take away and implement a thing or two.

Some feedback:

) Learned to keep team first. Do things that benefit the team and it will benefit us.

2) Learned about fitness standards and how to ask for help to improve. 

3) Got motivated to get the process right. Gained clarity on what to do and how to go about the most important things in life and sport.

4) Learned that we must work 80% on strengths and 20% on weakness (not to obsess over weak areas but improve them consciously through effort)

5) Performance Management requires us to prepare on Skill, Physical and Mental areas. To stay humble. To stay hungry and to stay foolish. Understood Deliberate Practice.

6) Know where you are and what you want and work to fill the gap.

7) Best motivation for cricket.

8) Plan before every session, ask feedback and play for the team 

9) Very informative and thought provoking session.

10) Learned how to become a better cricketer and human. Learned different aspects to work on. Learned the concept of deliberate practice. 

Talk at NexGen to Young Cricketers

Chatterjee has been inviting me to talk to the trainees at NexGen and we decided to do the talk after the season is done. I like the team at NexGen and feel they go about the coaching aspect in the right manner and with the right values - focus on coaching and improving the players with the right practices - so I was quite glad to say Yes. So when we spoke the other day we fixed the date and I went to the NexGen Academy in Tumkunta, one hour away from my place. 

Chatterjee received me and took me in. The boys were already waiting and I headed straight into the talk. There was Abhirath, Aniketh, Paras, Mayank from the boys I knew. We spoke about the practices of how to become a successful cricketer, and how the same practices help in becoming successful human beings.

I started off by setting the context - the golden Circle of Why, How and What. I explained the importance of knowing the Why - and we decided that the more times our team wins, the better it is for us. It's a worthy and high purpose. That the team is more important than the individual is something we agreed upon and to play for team win as a purpose was agreeable too.

We discussed the importance of Mindset - the fixed and the growth mindset and how we can get better by adopting the growth mindset of learning, of asking for help, of taking feedback, of increasing effort, of knowing process and being able to self correct.

In the How we looked at the process of preparation - physical, skill and mental. In the physical i asked them about the NCA parameters and where they stood. Then to prepare accordingly. On skill we discussed how to become better at skill - the 10000 hour rule, deliberate practice, knowing strengths and weaknesses and working on bettering the strengths and improving our weakness (in a 80:20 ratio).

We discussed the formula for performance. Two actually - one that performance reflects prepration on all three counts of physical, skill and mental preparation. 

Another that Performance = Potential - Interference. We discussed interference, the mental aspect, how to train the mind, how to get mentally stronger. We discussed the connection between outcome and process and how both are connected and not separate. I told them to drop blame, excuse and luck from their dictionary and take ownership for everything that happened to them and link it to preparation.

The students asked good questions about coming back from a poor run, correcting bad practices, how to cope with bad days and so on and so forth. Abhirath gave a vote of thanks and we took a pic and I left after some breakfast and coffee with Chatterjee and a few of the boys.

Thanks Chattu, NexGen for the opportunity. I enjoyed it and hope the boys benefited from it.

Some feedback:

1) I understood, that I have to Keep goal To achieve or play certain format . i have to have a mindset of winning every game i play and have to play every game possible. - S

2) Always keep team in front of self. As an individual person you can only push to take 4-5 wickets but if you play for a team you can push for 10 wickets also if required So benefit for individual in greater sense

3) Doing double as hard work as other fellow mates do as they had more time for practice

4) Sir was trying to convey how maximum outcome of a person is achieved and conveyed what is the selectors point of view about selecting candidates. And sir conveyed that keeping goals is not bad and be dominant in the field and life

5) My question about how to approach practice sessions when I don’t feel 100% was really well answered and I gained new and better perspectives about how to prepare mentally how to go about things on preparation and approach. It was a very insightful session. - A

6) Good morning sir, it was a very insightful session, interaction was about winning games for the team , not playing for personal goals. having a purposeful practice. - S

Feedback Series - Swethan

 Swethan was a young cricketer who would come to MLJ Academy for coaching. I would drop by there for a bowl once in a while and well, would chat with the boys as always. Its been a couple of decades since and he suddenly came up and while discussing this and that sent me some wonderful feedback. Sometimes, it makes all that time we spent coaching and mentoring seem worthwhile when we read stuff like this. Thanks Swethan.

...

"Sir, you always been a role model for me when I was playing! You gave me inputs and guided me which even today were good inputs. You allowed me to act in the movie and what not they all were so close to my heart. I was just a new guy but still you didn’t show any partiality but supported me. You inspired me to write blogs and that is one reason which helped me write good narratives even today in LinkedIn or even at office."

And a Thought for Mom and Mother Nature

It never ceases to amaze me how every year, this one mango tree and the two coconut trees my mother planted 50 years ago still keep giving bountifully despite the minimum lack of care from my side. Mom, when this house was being built, planted several trees - two mango trees, two coconut trees, a guava tree, a pomegranate tree, couple of Asoka trees and such stuff. 

Now the mango tree, coconut trees and the Asoka trees survive. Every year the mango tree gives off anywhere between 300-500 mangoes which are in great demand in our neighborhood so by the time we decide to get a few, half the crop has disappeared. Anyway it's fun to play the farmer, get the mangoes plucked, ripened, if someone has the drive, get avakai made. The ripened rasalu are very sweet and massive and I normally give it away feeling every bit a small rajah or something to people who I really really like. This year the crop has only yielded 150 which is a cause for concern.

The coconut trees have benefited by my watering for many years when my mom would give me the job and i would do it dutifully. Now i have no idea what to do with the crop except worry that the coconuts might fall on someone's head. There is one drunken fellow who comes every year promising to get them off but i worry that he will fall off and have banned him from the premises.

This year however the coconuts seem to have ripened and every other day I hear a coconut fall so i hired a more reliable climber who plucked off some 150 coconuts. Now we have no idea what to do with them but at least they will stop falling and endangering people etc. 

Overall, an interesting last couple of days. I cannot but feel the love of mother nature and her giving nature, her non judgemental attitude and the way she blooms so beautifully. And of course, every year when these trees bloom I cannot but remember my mother who built this house with love and planted these trees so we could (and many more anonymous colony people) enjoy their fruits. Thanks Mum and thanks Mother Nature.

The Paradoxes of Our Lives - To Find Those Who Have Helped you the Most, See Who You Complain Most Against

 I do find this most interesting - that our biggest complaints are against those who have helped us the most - or at helped us in some way. Clearly we cannot have a complaint against those who do not help us - there's nothing to complain you see.

But those who help us we have problems with - the way they gave, how much, the manner, how they stopped giving, how they could have done more and so on and on.

I'm going to make a list of all the people I have complaints against and make it a practice to thank them everyday - simply because they are the ones who have helped me.

Life is a paradox.