Pressure Victimizes.......
To be a champion, you have to learn to handle stress and pressure. But if
you've prepared mentally and physically, you don't have to worry.- Harvey Mackay.
I have to agree with this. When it comes to coping
with pressure I am a victim. When pressure is onto me I always think I am going
to lose. And half the time that happens because of the incorrect mindset!!
Firstly, when I am under pressure I usually tend to get distracted a lot and I don’t perform very well. My weakness is focus and I need to improve on it. I try to focus to the best of my ability and it sometimes pay off tremendously. At other times it gets me into big, big trouble and that trouble proves fatal later. Like the time I went to Akash International school for a football tournament. I was looking at another school practising when suddenly my teammate Bharatha passed the ball back to me. Right behind him was a huge guy, taller than me. As I was about to kick the ball he dribbled me and scored. The very next moment I was sitting on the bench and getting yelled at by Jerry sir.
Secondly, pressure can cause me to blank out! When
I am in an exam or a match I sometimes get stuck at some point. And if I get
stuck with a question God help me!!! Then I tend to misinterpret the question
and write some random answer. Or waste a lot of time and realise that I will
have to start all over again. I was writing my English literature Monthly test
and there was a question - write a letter to the poet Roger McGough. I did not read the question
fully and I wrote a diary entry by mistake. By the time I had noticed it was
too late. I had only 5 minutes left and I was not able to complete the
answer!!!
Last but not the least, I set high standards for
myself which create pressure. When you are playing a match you try to set a
game plan for yourself. The objectives
can be different for different people and for the things they do. For example a
goalkeeper would want to keep a clean sheet and he would not want to make any
silly mistakes. Here I was, playing in the Bangalore Club U14 tennis tournament
final against Dev Hingorani. I had
played against him before and he was really easy so I was sure I could easily
win the match. I was shocked when we played the first set. Even though I won
the first set he put up a good fight. My objective for the second set was to
beat him 6-1. But he was leading 5-0!! I thought that I was going to lose the
set. So I decided to not go down without a fight and Walla! I won!!!! I bounced
back 5-5 and won it 7-5.
I also want
to do things well and be appreciated for the outcome. When I was in grade five, I was playing drums
for the Theme Exhibition. I wanted to do a fantastic job. But I ended up making
a few mistakes which were noticed by my fellow musicians but not by the
audience. This still made me feel embarrassed.
Now you see how hard coping with pressure can be.
But what if I was able to come up with a solution that would fix this... So I now
set goals for myself. Each goal has a consequence. If I broke any of these goals the consequence
was a big one. For example if I was found looking around at someone while I was
in the game and the coach saw me then I would get a ban from playing games on
the ipad or computer for a week. In this way, if you set goals for yourself you
can achieve anything. This routine has been working very well for me, the first
few times I was unable to follow and the consequences were piling up. After
that I had learnt my lesson and I tried my best to focus on what I was doing
and not get distracted.
In
conclusion, I make goals for myself and attach consequences to the same. If I
do not achieve the goal, I face the consequences. I am working on changing the
feeling that I have let myself down even if others don’t think so. I have vowed
to work regularly and at a comfortable pace in attaining my goals. And if I
don’t, I know that I will give myself another opportunity.
Varun Bali
No comments:
Post a Comment