By: Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Sr. Associate Editor, ICN Group
(In the past article, we knew about the importance of learning new skills so as to speedily achieve our goals. Today, we will know about importance of having correct ‘attitude’ so as to achieve your goals.)
Add spice of attitude to your skills
Zig Ziglar, one of the greatest motivational speaker planet earth has witness said, “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude”.
Before talking anything about ‘attitude’, I wish to share an example of cricket legend, Sachin Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar is considered one of the best batsmen in the history of world cricket and is ranked very high amongst the list of all-time greats of the sport. In India, he is considered the God of Cricket. He played the international cricket for about 25 years and is the only person to score more than 30000 runs in the international cricket. He has 100 international centuries under his cap and lots of records, which are not possible for me to count. But let us see what was his scoring rate. In 463 ODI matches he played, he scored 18426 runs, for which he faced 21367 balls. Out of these runs, he hit 2016 fours and 195 sixes, which means that 9234 runs were scored in boundaries. This also shows that for scoring remaining 9192 runs, he faced 19156 balls.
You can see that even a player of such a high repute & skills could not hit every ball for a run. Have you ever thought why? This is because whenever he faced a new ball, he had to take a decision to either defend or to hit the ball for a run on the basis of the merit of the ball; and then apply his skills to implement his decision, within fraction of the second.
I invite your attention to observe that defending or hitting for runs, both are matter of ‘technique’, but waiting for the loose ball to hit for runs is a matter of ‘attitude’. Defending a dangerous ball is a matter of ‘skill’ but refraining from being tempted to hit more & more balls for runs is a matter of ‘attitude’.
You see that in cricket, if a batsman receives 2 or 3 dot balls, he tempts to cover the deficit of runs by taking risk on the next ball, but this is a bad attitude. 2 or 3 continuous good balls do not mean that next ball would automatically be a bad ball. Similarly, you must have observed that when a batsman hits 2 or 3 continuous balls for boundaries, he starts taking liberty with the next ball.
I would say it is not a resourceful attitude. You have to judge each & every ball on its merit, as Sachin Tendulkar did. At times, he received 5 continuous dot balls in an over, but we seldom saw him to recklessly go after sixth ball of the over without judging the merit of the ball. At times, he hit 2 or 3 continuous boundaries, but on the next ball, he took a single to rotate the strike, without being tempted to hit another boundary. Technique made him a master batsman but attitude to wait for the balls, which can be hit for runs contributed to his longevity. People may think that his successes are due to his skills but I am sure that his success is due to his attitude. You must have noticed that whenever, he was criticised, he did not reply on the television or social media. He used to reply his criticism by his bat only.
At the sets of KBC, he was asked by the host Amitabh Bachchan that there must be sheer hard work behind his success. At this he replied, “My father always told me that whether you will be successful or not, you are going to be sincere and very honest at what you are doing.” He also told that keeping in mind this ideal, he started practice in his early days.
I hope, the example of Sachin Tendulkar is clear to narrate you that even if you have the best of the skills in your field, you have to develop a winning attitude, coupled with sincerity, which will take you to unprecedented heights in your field. Success, fame and money are all bye products of your sincere work. There are many cricketers and other sports personalities, who can find reasons of their short career in above paragraphs.
(In the next article, we will continue this topic with some more insights. I believe that you are enjoying the journey towards the future of your dreams with me. If yes, please stay tuned every Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. Happy G.O.P.T.A.)
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Creator & copyright holder of the concept G.O.P.T.A.© is an Author, Certified NLP Lifestyle Master Practitioner, Corporate Trainer & Motivational Speaker and recipient of Honorary Doctorate of Excellence (Management) by prestigious Young Scientist University, California, USA. He is Founder of ‘Read, Learn & Earn Movement’ and is popularly known among his fans & followers across the globe as ‘Time and Goal Guru’.
