TOP 10 LESSONS THAT WILL GET YOU OUT OF COMFORT ZONE AND INSPIRE YOU TO ACHIEVE YOUR CALLING
The 5 factors of action are: the place of action (body), the performer, the various senses, the different endeavors and finally the Super soul. Any action that man performs, by mind, body or speech is a result of these 5 factors.
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| Source: Internet |
The year was 1952. The place, Helsinki in Finland. Top players and athletes from across the world converged on the city to compete with each other in the world’s biggest sports event – Olympics.
Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav was one of the participants representing Independent India to compete in wrestling.
On 23rd July, 1952, after going through lots of hardship, he won a bronze medal and became Independent India’s first individual medal winner in the Olympics.
Sixty-nine years later. The year is 2021. Once again the best players across the globe converge at the city of Tokyo in Japan to compete against one another aiming to win medals for their country in the world’s biggest sporting event, Olympics.
Neeraj Chopra, a 23 years’ Indian javelin thrower and a Junior Commissioned Officer in Indian Army, created history and once again made Indians proud when he became the first Indian track and field athlete to win Gold Medal for India.
The day was Saturday and the date was 7th August, 2021. Neeraj Chopra, with his stunning performance, won the men's javelin throw with his best throw of 87.58 meters and claimed the gold medal. The gold medal was not just a win for him, he had created history in the process and those who have watched him perform on the field were witness to history in making.
To achieve such a huge feat an individual has to go through a rigorous process of hardship and struggle. It is never smooth sailing and it is not even being passionate about something. Because passion may diminish or even worse, die. It is about showing up for practice long after your passion has weakened.
Coming from a middle class family, it was not a cake walk for Neeraj. He started putting hours of hard work and sweating in javelin throw way back when he was a teen.
What is the reason behind his success?
What right steps he took and what distractions he avoided?
What productive habits did he develop on the way as he worked on achieving success?
It is a topic worth exploring.
I’ve picked up ten top lessons that will inspire you to come out of your comfort zone and take massive actions to fulfill that one thing you want to achieve in life right now.
These lessons are derived from me listening to Neeraj Chopra’s various interviews uploaded on YouTube and reading related content on the internet.
These learnings are basically my interpretation of what the Golden Boy shared with various interviewers, answering their questions about his success.
I felt inspired as I was writing and I invite you to get inspired.
LESSON 1:
If you find some sport or an idea that has attracted your attention and you are doing a reasonably good job as a beginner, then go ahead with it. Explore your talent in it. Put your whole heart in it and see how far you can take it. Once your results start showing and you find that you are doing a really good job, you can go full throttle. Don’t worry about what the future holds for you in it.
When Neeraj, as a kid, first lifted and threw the javelin it surprised the people who were training for it. He was invited to join the team and start practicing javelin throw. Neeraj accepted it without thinking whether there is a future for him in the sport. He was just a thirteen-year-old kid. Maybe the one thought that might have crossed his mind was, he liked throwing the javelin, and so he agreed to be a part of the javelin throwing team.
Lesson 2:
To win in any game in life, whether it’s your career or a sport, the laser focused obsession must come from within you.
Even if you take up something because someone suggested you or forced you, you can never make a mark in that field if the passion to succeed doesn’t arise inside you.
It was Neeraj’s decision to take up javelin throw. He wanted to try his hand at that. His family didn’t know much about it but they assured him of their support.
Everyone has to fight their own battle. Parents, friends, and relatives can provide support, it is you who has to go out in the field and put in the effort. Do you have it inside you? Are you willing to come out of your comfort zone?
LESSON 3:
Don’t take pressure of performance. Just keep playing the game the right way and keep on developing your skills as you move ahead.
People around you will give suggestions, they will question your ability, or worse they may even make fun of you behind your back. It is our nature to get impressed or influenced by what we see and hear in the present. So, when someone throws a negative comment on what we are trying to achieve, we panic and allow self-doubt to creep into our system.
If you allow these loose talks to put pressure on you or to doubt your caliber, then your mind will pull you down destroying your willingness to make a mark. It infects us so deep that we give up on what matters to us most and fall in line with mediocrity.
Our only antidote is to train our mind to detach and disengage from the words spoken by people around us.
Learn to be resilient. Develop the ability to withstand such demoralizing talks and focus on your daily practice. Don’t fall prey to their thoughts. Refuse to give in. Step back. Continue your hard work. Never lose sight of your daily practice.
If possible, avoid interacting with people or listening to people who are continuously in reactive mode. Their only job is to react to whatever is happening right now. Strive to associate with people who can help you move ahead. If nothing works, work alone.
LESSON 4:
Enthusiasm and Zeal are key to performance, even if you are bored and don’t feel like practicing.
Neeraj practiced javelin throw for eight long years. Ask yourself, what is that one single thing that you have practiced for eight years?
This cannot be possible unless you convert your practice into a rhythmic daily ritual, something like brushing your teeth. Practicing to throw javelin every day became his regular habit and not something to be done only on weekends or when he was in the mood.
Oftentimes we may not feel that enthusiasm or may have lost our zeal. This cannot be an excuse for not going out and practicing. The responsibility lies on us to bring back our enthusiasm and find our lost zeal. One way to do that is keep on analyzing your game or whatever you are working on in your mind and thinking of different ways to improve it. Whatever new idea you come up with, test it out or else you will never know if it will work or not.
Be in the zone and always show up!
LESSON 5:
One who does his duty without attachment to the modes of material nature, free from egotism and with determination and enthusiasm is said to be in the mode of goodness.
Focus on your performance on the field. Don’t worry who is watching you.
It is human nature to get conscious if we find someone watching our performance or action. We continuously remind ourselves - the world is watching, don’t fail, don’t do something stupid.
These thoughts may adversely affect our natural performance and in trying not to commit any mistake, we tend to commit more mistakes.
When thousands of eyes are watching your every single move, just concentrate on the task at hand. Do what you have practiced for years.
LESSON 6:
Maintain a high level of confidence.
Confidence doesn’t come by pumping yourself with positive thoughts or listening to motivational pep talk.
Confidence comes from practice. Confidence comes from repetition. Confidence comes from doing. If you want to maintain a high level of confidence, you should maintain a high level of practice. The more you trust your training the higher will be your level of practice.
Neeraj could not have achieved his stunning success if he had not trusted his training. So the key is to trust your training and practice. And when you are out there performing in front of a crowd, have confidence in your preparation and converge your full attention at what you are about to do.
LESSON 7:
Give up on all your distractions long before you will be tested.
This is easier said than done.
In today’s consumer centric world when everyday thousands of products and videos instigating cheap thrills are competing to grab our attention, it becomes difficult for an individual to ignore them. We start with watching one video and are sucked in by suggested videos that appear better than what we have just watched. The loop continues one video after another and we don’t realize that we have spent five hours online and achieved nothing.
But one who overcomes the urge and falls in line with daily practice ritual will improve his chances of winning at anything.
Taking rest or taking a break from your practice doesn’t mean using that time to surf your social media account and getting curious to know what’s happening around or indulging yourself in watching some senseless daily soap.
If you don’t know how to use your leisure time, you may as well kiss your success goodbye.
Neeraj created a wall between himself and his smartphone. He gave up his mobile phone one year before he was to participate in the Olympics. He was away from social media and all the negativity that was floating around. He was not concerned about what people were talking about him on social media, the expectations people had from him. He put everything behind him and kept his mind occupied with his practice and positivity.
LESSON 8:
We all are humans. The best athletes and players also cannot give best results all the time. Even Sachin Tendulakar and MS Dhoni have got out on duck, without scoring a single run.
The important thing is that you should keep moving forward even after failure.
Success and failure are part of our lives, they are the two sides of a coin. Sometimes we experience success and sometimes failure. Success tells us that if we put enough hours of hard core practice we too can achieve what may seem impossible in the beginning. Failure tells us that there was someone else somewhere in the world who practiced harder than me and defeated me.
Important thing is to learn the lesson and never allow either success or failure to get into our heart and mind.
Bill Gates said - ‘Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.’
Henry Ford commented on failure - ‘Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again. This time more intelligently.’
LESSON 9:
Don’t celebrate your success for long.
No one can expect their one single successful performance to last their lifetime. You have been rewarded, you have been applauded for your performance.
Feel good about what you have achieved. Relish your accomplishment. Take delight in your achievement, give interviews and talk about it in the press. Inspire others. Celebrate with your family and friends. But don’t let the party continue forever.
Ask - what next?
Set a new goal, pick a new challenge, look to achieve something bigger and go for it starting afresh.
Taking it Forward…
We have watched Neeraj Chopra, a humble boy from a remote village in Haryana win a gold medal for India. We are fortunate to have become witness to history. This is one history that the proud citizens of India must work upon and repeat.
It is not just about getting inspired and taking up a sport with the ambition or goal of winning a gold medal. It is about picking up a sport or any vocation and practicing it so hard that you become the best in it. Indulge in deliberate practice. This is specifically high in sports. Practice slowly and carefully without hurrying to finish off your practice.
Then put yourself through tests in various competitions. See how you perform compared to others. The medals you win will decide how high you have arrived and then, maybe the ultimate test will be the Olympics.
The lessons discussed not just apply to sports or athletics. It can be applied to any field including studies and achieve a high level of success.
I would like to leave you with a quote that will help you answer - what next?
It’s time to sit down and think about what’s truly important to you and then take steps to forsake the rest. Without this, success will not be pleasurable, or nearly as complete as it could be. Or worse, it won’t last.
-- Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy
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