I have been associated with VJIM for a few years now and have conducted a workshop or two, and several lectures. The current Director Durga Prasad and I have known each other for a while now and when he called me the other day to do an online session for the fresher batch I was more than happy. Niharika, who handles training, is a sportsperson herself and believes strongly that there are lessons to be learned from sports and hence they invited me to do the talk. We titled it 'Lessons from Sports to Succeed in Life'. The talk was for 75 minutes and started at 11 am.
The gist of the talk:
...
There are many similarities between sports and life especially cricket. Let’s try and understand success through the prism of sports, or cricket because sports and games are a microcosm of life. What happens over a year at a corporate setting happens in a day or a game - your preparation, your purpose, your attitude, your team binding will all result in joy or tragedy. In sports, it's even more direct whereas in a corporate setting it becomes diluted across many people. Hence I feel that sports are the best analogies to learn lessons to apply in life.
Typically there are three myths that come in the way of a person achieving success in sports and in life. They are the Myths of
1) Myth 1 - Talent and Intelligence is the Deciding Factor
2) Myth 2 - Hard work doe snot pay; Smart work does
3) Myth 3 - It's about luck finally
Myth 1 – Talent or Intelligence is everything
I shared my story of how I played Ranji Trophy and did fairly well but when I was dropped I didn't make any effort to make a comeback because I believed I was limited by my talent which I felt was fixed. I remember feeling the same way about intelligence too.
When I read the book 'Mindset - by Dr Carol Dweck' I realised that everything can be learned with effort and proper guidance. The key was to adopt the learning mindset and get out of the field mindset.
|
Fixed Mindset Characteristics |
Growth Mindset Characteristics |
|
Desire to look smart |
Desire to learn |
|
Avoid challenges |
Embrace challenges |
|
Give up easily |
Persist in the face of setback |
|
Get defensive |
Seek help to find ways to improve |
|
See effort as fruitless |
See effort as the path to mastery |
|
Ignore useful negative feedback |
Learn from criticism |
|
Feel threatened by others
successes |
Find lessons and inspiration from
others success |
|
Plateau early and achieve less
than their full potential |
Reach even higher levels of
achievement as a result and get closer to potential |
To progress and beat this myth, even if you are the last person in this class - Adopt the learning mindset, push up effort, get help from teachers, mentors, measure progress and achieve your goals. Even if you’re the last in class today you can, by adopting this mindset, change the story in a few years.
Myth 2 – Hard work vs Smart Work
A lot of people believe that smart work means there is no hard work - that we can take shortcuts, fool and cheat the system. But smart work actually means you work harder. Champions work the hardest. Smart work is using the same resources efficiently to get better results. They figure out improvements every day and work towards a grand vision. Which means they prepare better on their routines, more smartly, more informed choices. They do the first things first.
For example, a person who is cutting rock can work very hard and cut rocks all his life without adding any value. That means he is not putting his head into the process, looking at possibilities. If he had a vision, if he thought he could build something beautiful out of the rock he could add tremendous value by making a sculpture out of the same rock. Carve out a successful career, MSD vs Dinesh Karthik
You need a big vision, the best vision of your life right now, dream big, and then apply your head as to how you can achieve it. You will find a way. That is smart work - making your resources count.
To do - Dream big vision, assess the situation, figure your strengths, figure how to get the best results using your resources
Again, the last guy in class can change things by looking at work differently. First hard work and then smart work.
Myth 3 – Luck plays a big role
As a rule we cannot bring luck into the picture at the beginning because then we have nothing in our control. It is also not scientific to believe in luck. Aeroplanes, don't fly on luck, nor do space ships go by luck. It’s not luck. It's ourselves. S I suggest you leave the church of luck aside and take full responsibility and work on fixing your shortcomings, finding why things aren't working out. Ordinary people achieve great things when they take full responsibility. (After you achieve everything you can always say you were lucky. That's the only time luck is allowed in the picture!)
The typical story is that we worked hard, tried everything but nothing worked. Bad luck messed it up for us. I worked harder but didn't get selected. But if you take full responsibility we should look at where our preparation is lacking. The formula is simple - our results reflect our preparation. Are we fully ready - skill-wise, physically, mentally, emotionally? Are you ready to receive your reward NOW? Only then are we ready.
To do - Take full responsibility for your life, situation, prep + results, don’t blame and find excuses, fix shortcomings.
Action Points -
- Set a big vision for life, the most beautiful outcome you can imagine (high risk, high return)
- Set goals– SMART goals - 20-year goals, 10-year goals, 5-year goals and 2 year goals
- Work on them – first things first – process and execution is key
- Surround yourself with like-minded people
- Get mentors and coaches - share your goals
- Measure progress
- Achieve
- Enjoy the journey
- Success is personal.
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