Five Dances of Effort

This is a continuation of Can You “Do Anything You Set Your Mind to” or Not? and Keep Calm and Discover Your Talent

Effort is a prerequisite for any significant achievement but unfortunately it is not well-understood or well-executed. The word dance more accurately captures what I mean by effort. As Rumi said:

“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.”

Dance with Your Brain

“Work smart! Work Hard!” I agree the first part of conventional wisdom about working smart but I also believe that not working hard is misleading. Working smart should be the first step of effort. This step is about dancing with your brain and analyzing to formulate an effective and efficient plan. 

More specifically, formulate a plan that is relevant, robust, succinct, and flexible.

1. Relevant: Before you start formulating a plan, you must understand the situation, your goals, and your choices. Of all these things, most people overlook the “goals” part of the plan. They do not focus on their objectives to evaluate their solutions. Your plan must be relevant to the situation and optimize your goals. Going 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour in the wrong direction is counterproductive.
2. Robust: Your plan must strong and concrete. It should have the power to blow away any obstacles and withstand any opposition. It should address the people affected so that you can take them along with you without derailing your plan.
3. Succinct: Your plan must be simple and short. Most times you have to coordinate your plan with the others around you. A long plan that you and your allies can’t understand is distracting and dangerous because it can easily lead to confusion and chaos.
4. Flexible: A tree must bend to survive a strong wind and your plan needs to be flexible enough to adapt to the unexpected. You cannot anticipate all possible changes and obstacles, and the ones you cannot anticipate usually hurt your plans the most when you least expect. Whenever new information becomes available, you must process it and adjust your plan. Your can only do this if you plan must be flexible to adapt to changes. Don’t expect that your rivals will sit on their hands while you notch up your achievements.

For example, if you want to design a new app, it must solve a pain-point for someone and do it in robust and concrete manner. It should be concise in the sense that it should focus on the specific problem you are solving, and not distract you and your prospective customers with other complications. If your prospects’ usage indicates that you need to adapt and your plan should be flexible enough that you can evolve.

Dance When You’re Broken Open

You have to dance when you are broken open to overcome setbacks. Recovering from setbacks demands mental and physical effort. Dancing when you are broken open is mentally and physically challenging.

Rumi said, “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

Muhammad Ali was stripped of his titles and banned from boxing because he challenged the commonly accepted practices of his times. He came back from that after years of struggle to regain his title. He lost his title a second time but before he hung up his gloves, he regained his title for the third time becoming the only 3-time lineal world heavyweight champion (1964, 1974, and 1978). He achieved that because he danced when he was broken open… twice! He also floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee. We have all heard of great achievements but we tend to ignore that they usually have come after many failures and long struggles that broke open the achievers. Google and Apple Inc. faced elimination, before they turned around and achieved unprecedented success. Historically, most scientific breakthroughs went through many failures before success. The 2016 NBA Finals saw Cleveland Cavaliers come back from 1-3 down to win the series 4-3. They did so because LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and their team was able to dance when they were broken open.

Dance in the Middle of Fighting

There is a thin line between the “thrill of victory” and the “agony of defeat.” I don’t need to convince anyone that the beginning is important and so is finishing the task. Everyone knows the importance of getting off to a flying start and finishing strong. I needed to convince many mentees that the part in the middle is often the most important.

Before embarking on a journey, you can have a strong beginning but it is the grueling long road in the middle of the fight that makes the most difference… The daily grind of getting up every day and improving yourself and making progress… developing existing skills, and learning new skills… The hours spent training and learning after you get started… The determination of keeping at it when you are exhausted... The effort of reinventing yourself when you are in the middle of the fight… All this requires humility and determination.

The middle of fighting often involves long periods of sustained effort learning new skills and working on many boring things. It is a humbling experience to see others around you cruise through some aspects of your life that are painful and hard for you. After graduating from High School (Cambridge University O’ Levels), I spend three years trying to get into good college that would meet my financial need. I saw others get in on their first attempt and were half through college while I was still on the outside trying to get in.

There were three things that complicated the middle of my fighting/education. I wasn’t a US citizen nor a US resident at that time so I could only qualify for merit scholarships (and not need based financial aid). Secondly, my poor English was quantified with a 470 on SAT verbal. To make it triple whammy my High School was in the British system and I had received about 9 years of schooling because I skipped a few grades early in my schooling. After failing to get admission financial aid for two years in even half-way decent colleges, I went back to Pakistan to take High School equivalency exam (Intermediate) and shortly after that Wake Forest was gracious enough to offer me a scholarship to benefit from a college education.

There were times in that stage of my life that I almost gave up the fight/education. I struggled dealing with dismal failure to get into college and the sustained dancing while preparing for my High School equivalency exam. The “middle game” demands you to dance in the middle of fighting. I could have settled for never going to college and may have turned out fine. However, I feel I was better off going to college and gaining the maturity and understanding that I needed at that stage of my life. I was fortunate to have my family support and encourage me to dance in the middle of fighting.

Muhammad Ali “hated every minute of training,” but he said to himself, “Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”

If you have not experience that discomfort you have not discovered your potential. It is all about dancing in the middle of fighting. It is all about dancing in your blood.

Dance in Your Blood

I believe competitive sports build the mental toughness that is needed to dance in your blood. I coached Granada Islamic School to its first championship at the State level with a small group of hardworking players. The news of the championship attracted flocks of students to the chess club, who wanted to be part of the chess team to win another championship. About 90 students in a school of 400 students joined.

We hired professional coaches and that enabled us to split the students into groups based on their rating. I believed that we will dominate the nation with a pool of 90 students and set up the pipeline for the dynasty. Aamir Ali Azhar, my oldest son, sacrificed his training and became a coach for the intermediate students. Muhammed Razeen was developing quickly and getting into Top 75. Yousef Azhar, my middle son, was already in Top 50 for his age riding his natural talent, without any formal coaching. We had professional coaches that would train a dynasty that will bring Granada many State and National championships.

The new chess students were quick to grasp the basic chess skills and performed well in the Beginner sections of local tournaments. As their rating improved, they advanced to sections with higher rating bands and winning became more challenging. They lost and they couldn’t dance in their blood. They saw the championships their predecessors brought home but did not realize the dancing that went it the success. A few parents reacted by putting more pressure on their children. Despite my best efforts, most of the talented children left chess completely. The program scaled back after Aamir graduated from Granada.

If you want to achieve something meaningful in life, be prepared to dance in your blood.

Dance When You are Perfectly Free

Dancing when you are perfectly free is the most challenging of all effort. There are two reasons for it:

1. Achievement is a tough pill to swallow. Some people feel guilty because others as talented as them failed. Some under pressure to achieve more or sometimes to maintain their success. Over time, my achievements were harder for me to swallow than my failures for these and many other reasons. Even today, I’m more comfortable talking about my failures than my successes.
2. Winning breeds complacency. My most devastating failures have come during times when I believed I was winning. Overconfidence lulled me into sleep and it was like going sleep while driving and waking up upside down in your car.

The Golden State Warriors achieved more wins than any other team in the history of the NBA before they lost in the Finals. They succumbed mentally and didn’t have the fire in their belly to close out the 2016 NBA Finals because they didn’t dance when they were perfectly free.

This is continued at https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/how-your-passion-drives-you-corner-effort-talent-salman-azhar?published=t 

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PS: I feel bad about the copyright notice but am in talks to publish some of these writings. I still want them available to others so you can critique and help me improve. I will acknowledge you if you do that.