Three Lessons

Arvind Sharma from USA has asked me to write this post.

Everyone is drawing lessons from yesterday's, world cup semi-final match between Brazil and Germany (for those who do not follow football; Germany won by an unbelievable 7-1 margin. In fact they were leading 7-0 till the last few minutes). Apart from the usual prescription of - 'never underestimate your opponent', 'have a strategy for crisis' and 'team work and being technically sound matters' - I have taken out three lessons, which can be applied in our daily lives. These are:

1. There are no guarantees in life. Never be 'too' sure of anything. It changes in an instant. This was brought out in my post yesterday. Brazil's team and their supporters, seemed overconfident of victory. As a result, the team lacked focus during the game. We may be the better side, but the focus must be on the task at hand. Take example from Indian cricket team's skipper, MS Dhoni, who even under odds, stays focused on the game. Further, having done our job, we must leave the result to the Almighty. When I was deployed in combat missions in Kashmir, I had the opportunity to interact with many locals and saw the power in the Muslims 'Insha-Allah" - leave it to the Will of God. Hindu's Gita also talks about, being non-attached to the result. Our job is to do our best - that's it. I think, after the first two goals (or may be three), Brazil was not doing their best. They gave up. That brings me to the second lesson.

2. When you are rolling downhill, make efforts to stop the fall. Fight back and do not give up. You may not win the battle, but you will have the satisfaction that you tried your best. History is full of examples of people who were triumphant in the end because they did not give up.

"My greatest point is my persistence. I never give up in a match. However down I am, I fight until the last ball. My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories" - Bjorn Borg

3. Third, you cannot give your best under stress because stress induces fear. I often give the following example of psychological stress. Suppose you can do long jump for 15 meters. If I now take you on top of two high rise building that are exactly 14 meter apart and ask you to jump across, would you take on the challenge? No, because under stress, you stop believing in yourself. Physiologically, you would be the same, but psychologically you got fearful and lost before the fight.

And finally, let us take the lessons that life has to offer, move on and come back stronger next time.