Big Moment Is Coming

I presume many of you have watched “Game of thrones” and hence familiar with ” Winter is coming” statement. This dialogue has been spoken by many characters with a chilling and reverberating effect to allude towards something unprecedented and huge.

Same analogy i would use to describe the psyche of some people/teams when they are confronted with the final frontier or big/defining moment.

But before dilating further on the subject would request forgiveness from all the readers for my presumptuousness to comment on certain champion individuals and teams.

I would be using examples from sports to emphasise my point of view.

Let’s start with P.V.Sindhu’s latest match against Carolina Marin in the finals of Badminton World Championship , this was Sindhu’s 7th or 8th loss in finals out of 11 or 12 finals that she has played in last 2 years , losing roughly 63-64% of finals.

Pretty disheartening for her fans ( counting myself in), coach , family & friends and more than any one else for her .

We all know that she is a champion player and a strong athlete , reaching so many finals in last 2 years is a testament of her ability and form. Then what goes wrong , why suddenly she becomes a different player. If we rewind all her matches before the finals , we see a different Sindhu , a Sindhu who is far more competitive , resilient and assertive . A Sindhu who is not getting overwhelmed by the moment and giving easy points to the opponent. But in finals , a different Sindhu descends on court , someone who is ambivalent in her approach , less assertive and decisive. On the other side you see Carolina Marin , who has defeated Sindhu in 2 finals , Olympic finals and this year’s World Championship finals , she is 2 times more dangerous in finals , more assertive and ruthless. Yes she is a fabulous player but becomes almost invincible in finals.

Why is this happening to Sindhu in finals , does she goes down on form in finals ….hard to fathom so many drops in finals only . Does she finds an invincible opponent….if she faces same opponent before finals , her record is always showing more wins than loses. Is it happening because of sheer bad luck ….you can not get unlucky on so many occasions. Or she goes down on her ability to seize the final and big moment , to take decisive split second actions because of being overwhelmed by the occasion.

Lets see another example , does anyone remembers the 1999 Cricket World Cup semi final match between Australia & South Africa , one of the greatest World Cup semi finals ever played. If any one does then s/he can very well make out few distinct behaviours and approaches displayed in that particular match. Lets talk about a tad more about the two teams involved and how they behaved in the semi finals .

South Africa in that World Cup was one of the hot favourites , having a great bowling attack , led by a great skipper , blessed with two in form and world class allrounders , most explosive limited overs batsman of his time ( Hershele Gibbs) and one of the greatest fielder world ever saw. And above all they all were playing excellently as a team.

On the other side Australian team though comprising of many great players were playing some very ordinary cricket and thus reinforcing the believe that this side wont be able to do much in this tournament.

World Cup started for both teams on a different note , South Africans started dazzling everyone with their performance and Lance Klusner was in red hot form , winning few matches single handedly for them. And on the other side Australians barely scraped through in initial matches and struggled to find any cadence worthy of their stature. Their Captain , Steve Waugh was getting questioned on his leadership abilities , their star bowler , Shane Warne was struggling for form and others were also not firing as they could.

Resilience and Self Confidence are the two biggest virtues in times of struggle and Aussies exhibited them in abundance and somehow managed to reach to the semi finals where an in-form South African team was waiting for them.

Bookies and pundits were eager to announce the verdict before even a ball was bowled , the odds were tilted towards South African team and they were touted as favourites for this match .

Match started and Aussies were put in to bat by South Africa on a bowler friendly wicket , South Africans asserted themselves from the beginning and started stomping Aussies . Australia some how managed 213 from 50 overs , a below par score specially considering the batting form and depth of South Africans . South Africans started in a positive manner and reached to 40-50 runs with out losing anything.

Steve tossed the ball to Shane Warne knowing that this was his last dice to change the course and in his first or second over Shane did Hershelle Gibbs with a ripping leg break and changed the game on its head .

From that very moment there were two sets of behaviours visible on the ground , one kind ; that was full of confidence and a believe that we can turn it around , that jumped and seized the first opportunity offered to re-assert themselves , that started expressing and enjoying themselves on the ground. And then there was another kind; that started focusing on their opponents more than themselves and getting overawed and overwhelmed by their celebrations , actions , feats etc , that started hesitating to be decisive because of a cluttered thought process .

I vividly remember the moment Shane Warne got Gibbs out , yes it was a beautiful delivery but his and Aussies celebration aggrandised its effect on the South Africans and they started expecting more such deliveries from him, This gave Aussies an opportunity to be all over them. I am not trying to insinuate that Shane or Aussies were not brilliant , they played like true champions and deserved to win but South African’s mental frailties played a huge part.

This is another example of letting your opponents in and surrendering your advantageous position not because of any talent dearth or a sudden dip in form but presumably because of getting inundated by the moment and hence behaving indecisively and nervously.

And this is not peculiar to sports only , it happens in all other fields too. Remember faltering during critical and important presentations despite of domain knowledge and experience , thinking too much about what if’s when asked to volunteer for a project or task , fumbling and forgetting during final interviews/exams , not asking questions or answering ones specially when amongst higher echelons , thinking too much about the impression your response would create and this could happen despite knowledge of the subject.

And we all know how crucial these moments can be for our lives and careers , ability or inability to seize such opportunities goes a long way in deciding and defining our final destinations.

But why these mental capitulations happen , why we get capsized by the occasions . I am not an expert but basis whatever experience i have accumulated over the years , i am laying down my bit-

• Moderate Confidence: At the outset let me accept that having butterflies in the tummy is extremely essential , it keeps us grounded and focussed which is required for any successful outcome. Over confidence is as fatal as low confidence , its moderate confidence that one needs.
• Focus on yourself: I have experienced that the moment you start focussing too much on your opponents or other participants your focus gets diluted , instead focus on your own area of influence and that is nothing but your strengths. Remember the aforesaid examples of Sindhu and South Africans, they started focussing on their opponents more and hence got reactive. One can only seize the big moment if one plays according to his / her strengths and not by reacting to others , so many examples in business where corporates instead of playing as per their strengths , focussed too much on their opponents and literally played in their hands. Remember Milkha Singh’s famous 400 meters final , he was surging ahead but the moment he diverted his focus from himself to his opponents , he lost the race.
• You deserve it: Big moments are not in abundance in any one’s life hence when blessed with one , enjoy and live it to the maximum. Just go with one thought , you deserve it and that’s why God has blessed you. Believe you me this mindset helps a great deal in injecting confidence and reducing thoughts of failure.
• Don’t repeat: Every one fails and failures are very important lessons for success , the difference between a success and failure is that success learns from mistakes and never repeats it while failure does not learns and keeps repeating the mistakes. When one constantly starts losing big moments that means s/he is not learning from failures.
• Think ahead but no too ahead: There is a difference between thinking ahead and thinking too much ahead. For me thinking ahead is strategisingand thinking too ahead is getting impatient. The moment one starts thinking too much ahead of the present , s/he gets out of sync and jumps the process sequence and fails to seize the big/defining moment. How many careers have got derailed because of thinking too ahead of the time and jumping the sequence of process. I have seen experienced and senior people getting overwhelmed by career defining / big moments and behaving in a surreal manner. Such people lose their ingenuity and thus fail to impress or clear the final hurdle.

Thinking ahead and thinking too ahead varies as per the context and backgrounds.

These are my observations and not the only reasons behind faltering at the final frontier or failing to seize the big moment.

Would appreciate views from you all , thank you.