Games You Will Play

If you’re about to hit your restart button and launch yourself into your professional life, it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to predict that you are soon going to witness some BIG change in your life. Let’s talk about it.

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Tell me, won’t you agree when I say that while a very long phase of your life as a student must have come to an end, the reality is – ‘Every end is a fresh beginning’ Great! Sure you’ll also agree that ‘Every fresh beginning is a challenge’ and ‘Every challenge needs a game-plan’ Agree? Great!

Now let’s talk about the game that you will play for your whole life day in, day out – the game of ‘success’ and ‘failure’. And because you need to have a game plan ready you are bound to know something most importantly… - who the opponent is. Because unless you know the teams contending… it’s not worth thinking about the game plan. All my life I found two teams always vying for victory and the game always will be ‘Attraction’ Vs ‘Attention’.

Look at your favorite mobile, look at the fashion you like, look at the energy drink you want to buy, look at your personal choices from furniture to future. Every choice you made until now was a result of what attracted you at a conscious level or something that went deep into your mind due to external influence.

The trick is that everything that attracts you holds your attention. And everything that you focus on grows and occupies more space in your brains. Everything that has ever become yours more often than not has been because of one or the other external influence. Think.

And the first set of teams competing is always ‘Attraction’ and ‘Attention’. So the game is…

ATTRACTION Vs ATTENTION

The fun part is you want to win every game you play, don’t you? I love this. Be it snakes and ladders or soccer, be it street cricket or international cricket, you just want to win every game. That’s great! And it’s absolutely natural. The question is do you have the game plan to win. And today I am all excited to share the game plan with you. Ready?

A young boy dreamed to become a world champion in chess. Now becoming a world-champion in chess required a certain skills which he was being trained for from his trainers. But at the same time there were thousands across the world who were preparing for the same. So this young boy needed to get an edge over the others. And he wanted something that could put him miles ahead of others. Thankfully his father had the secret to help him. He started training this young kid. Eventually this young kid became world-champion in the chess in his age group.

But the story didn’t stop there. Now that this young boy had the tool for gaining an edge, he wanted to experiment more with it. He wanted to see if the same skill can make him a world champion in Marshall Arts.

Do you feel the difference?

Someone a champion in chess now began dreaming of becoming a world champion in Tai Chi. And started working towards it day in day out. Surprisingly in a few years he won the world championship. What’s more important, the opponent he defeated in his final competition was a Tai Chi Master who had already trained hundreds of Tai Chi champions. That was a mind-bending reality.

How could someone who was into chess suddenly turn to marshal arts and also defeat the tai chi master. He was Joshua Waitzkin – Author of ‘The Art of Learning: An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance’. What must have been that unique thing that his father had been training for – Now quickly make a guess. Let’s see what your answers are:

Here’s the secret ingredient: The only thing his father knew deep in his heart was that if a person could stick to doing something at Peak Level Focus for a solid 3 hours a day, he could be a champion at anything. And that’s exactly what Josh was preparing for – working at Peak Focus Levels for longer duration.

He says human brain is built for intense focus for maximum of 3 hours a day. And if you knew how to tame you mind for those 3 crucial hours a day you are bound to get blockbuster success.

Think who’s going to be your enemy- It’s ‘ATTRACTION’.

It is so tricky and treacherous that it presents itself as important. Suddenly going to a movie also becomes an urgent task, answering a call on your phone becomes urgent, visiting a friend for a chat too becomes urgent, now you can go on and on with the list. What you read, what you listen, what you watch, who you spend time with, what you talk starts designing the way you think, and what you think in your head is the software that is going to create the landscape of your life.

The second set of teams competing will be…

CHANGE Vs RESISTANCE

Let me ask you… How often have you got excited about a dress or a mobile or a new watch or something that you decided to buy after watching a TV commercial? But no soon after you got it, it lost its importance. You relegated it to the background and started looking for something different.

If you say that’s natural, let me remind you that most people who fail in the long run in life are they who don’t accept change. But the truth is that the only companion you’ll have throughout your life is change.

A boy who lost his father and had an old mother to take care of was finding it very difficult. And his mother took responsibility of bringing up this kid at least to help him find a job somewhere to earn his livelihood. She started working as a maid. And with the little money she made both managed to get some food one their table. Living in a small hut which was already ready to give in at any time was. The boy grew up to somehow finish his graduation and got a job for himself to relieve his poor mother from the hardship she was undergoing. And he got placed as a system administrator in an engineering college where he got Rs. 2500/- as his monthly salary. His mother could never find an opportunity to retire. She still had to continue to manage a decent lifestyle in poverty.

But this boy was different. His heart was fired-up with passion and mind with a laser-like focus. Working with computer all day, he somehow managed to fabricate a computer for himself and began learning coding from the books in the library of the college. He would work hard all day. And study and continue his practice of coding through the night. Sleep became a distant relative and learning became a close friend. The magic had to happen and it did! Well not surprisingly, in less than three years he was far better at coding than most faculty of the college. People were stunned at his skill. They inspired him to look for better opportunities that could give him better package.

He moved to Visakhapatnam and got placed for a salary of Rs. 8000/-. After working for about 2 years and with consistent efforts he grew to a package of Rs. 32000/- and eventually grew rich compared to his life earlier, earning over a lakh every month.

Kiran is now leading a very successful financial life in Hyderabad. The greatest thing he has done is that he, through his focused efforts, has lifted his family above the poverty line. His mother must have been the happiest person to see that her child grew up into a self-reliant and successful person.

What do you think made him successful?

The prime reason Kiran is successful is his readiness to embrace change and his efforts to lead change. Today he works from home. All the newest electronic gadgets are bought and sent to him and he is just required to suggest the company on what products the company can invest in for the gadget.

But what could be the enemy of change? It’s resistance. Not surprisingly most people who fail to taste success in life are they who resist change. And once you decide to be successful in your academic, personal or professional lives, the trick is to accept and adapt to change as swiftly as possible.

We naturally don’t like things to change. You might have experienced this. You have something important to do. You convince yourself that you’ll start doing it just after watching television for 20 minutes. And suddenly after an hour you realize that you are glued to the screen as if someone has stuck you there. That’s resistance already at work.

Learn to accept change as fast as possible and you will see yourself flying high in life.

Gear up for the BIG change life’s going to gift you soon, be ready for the game and have your game-plan ready!

Get cracking!

Ranjan Kumar

Bestselling Author: Hit Your Restart Button