Tiger Woods Interview
Thanks for coming back. =). Glad to see you. If there's anything I can do for you, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email, or leave a comment, introduce yourself. I'd love to connect with you. Or if you have your own blog, why not let me promote your work?
I’m not a huge fan of golf, but I am a fan of Tiger Woods. I love his mentality. He’s a true winner, who doesn’t settle for anything less. And this interview really shows that. You should watch it, even if you’re not a golf fan. There are lots of great lessons and insights into the mind of an amazing sportsman.
The ending of it really shows what he’s all about, and what I really like about him. His got great self confidence and belief in himself – but he’s not arrogant – and he’ll never settle for anything less than what he wants.
“The greatest thing about tomorrow is I will be better than I am today.”
What are you doing to ensure that you’re going to be better tomorrow than you are today?
[?]Tags: golf, mentality, Sports, tiger woods, winning
Your Opponents Weaknesses or Your Strengths
Dec 20, 2007 Uncategorized
No matter what you’re doing, you’ll always have competition. In games, in business, even in relationships. There’s always competition of sorts. How do you deal with this competition? There are 2 general ways people go about dealing with competition.
You could focus on your opponents weaknesses. Target where they are weak and adjust what you’re doing to hit them there. Or you could focus on your own strengths. Don’t think so much about what they do, but just do what you’re the best at. Of course, it’s best when your strengths align with your opponents weaknesses, but that’s not always the case.
A good example of that was the Sunday EPL matches. Liverpool vs Manchester United and Arsenal vs Chelsea. Liverpool and, to a lesser extent, Chelsea, typify the first approach. They change their system and the players they use based on their opponents. They try to identify weaknesses in the opponents play and plan according to those weaknesses.
Manchester United and Arsenal, on the other hand, play their own game. Yes, they study their opponents (who wouldn’t). But at the end of the day, they focus on what they do best. They stick to their game.
The results over the weekend? 1-0 wins for both Manchester United and Arsenal. Not much of a surprise there, to me. The best way to win is still to just do what you do best. Play to your strengths.
At least that’s what I believe. What do you think? How do you beat your competition?
[?]Tags: be yourself, best, competition, Sports, stand out
What’s going wrong with Arsenal
Dec 11, 2007 Uncategorized
Arsenal, my favorite football (the one which you actually play with you feet), have been going through a slight dip in form lately. With 3 of our best 4 midfielders out injured, the team’s struggling to click, and it just isn’t going for them.
My personal take on what’s going wrong? Playing Diarra and Gilberto in the center of midfield together. These are two defensive midfielders, who do a similar job. And they offer nothing going forward. There’s a lack of creativity. And a lack of options and variety to our play. Because the two players are so similar, the partnership does not work.
For those of you who aren’t football fans, my apologies. But there are lessons here for all of us. In all teams, there needs to be variety. Having people doing the same thing doesn’t help the cause. A team works best when everyone is doing their own thing, and complementing each other. So don’t try to do what other people are doing, but do your own thing. And it also highlights the importance of creativity. The players have decent technique, they can do the job well, but they lack the creativity to get out of tough situations. And that’s why Arsenal are losing, in my opinion.
Creativity is so important. We’ll definitely find ourselves in tough positions once in a while. And creativity is essential to get out of it.
How are you complementing the people around you? And how are you finding creative solutions to get out of your problems?
[?]Tags: complementary, creativity, Sports
Don’t Look Down
Dec 8, 2007 Uncategorized
Anyone who’s done climbing will probably have heard the tip “don’t look down”. There’s a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, it’s for safety (this is what I just read), because if anything falls, you don’t want it hitting your neck. Secondly, and this is the point that I want to discuss, I think it’s about confidence. Sometimes when you look down, you realize how far off you are, and that gets you slightly more apprehensive. And that apprehension is never good.
In life, whenever you’re trying to progress, when you’re trying to go ‘higher’, it’s always risky. And when you look down, it’s always going to be scary. So my advice? The same advice that rock climbers are given.
Whatever you’re pursuing, don’t look down. Yes, you prepare for the worst. You make sure that you don’t come off too bad (like the safety harness for climbers). But once you get going, don’t keep thinking about the worst case scenario. Don’t think about the risk you’re taking. Basically, throw out all second thoughts once you get going. If you’re doing it, go in 100%. Because if you don’t, chances are, you won’t be successful. You need to be committed, believe that you’ll succeed, and just keep looking forward.
Once you’ve started climbing, don’t look down.
How do you stop yourself from having second thoughts about what you do?
Photo Credit:
093007 climb lcl mgs
Originally uploaded by MICHAEL G. SEAMANS
Tags: commitment, risk, self belief, Sports
Falling Down
Dec 6, 2007 Uncategorized
This was a thought inspired by Vera’s comment in my post on snowboarding. She said “[falling is] incredibly humiliating. 
But falling down doesn’t really hurt me I guess.” I think it was a great comment.
To continue with the same analogy, in snowboarding, falling down doesn’t really hurt. It’s humiliating at times. But it doesn’t really hurt. That’s the case sometimes in life as well. Falling can be humiliating. Failing can embarrass you. But sometimes, it doesn’t really hurt. And you should just get up and move on.
Of course, that’s not always the case. Take the example of skateboarding (chosen mainly because of the relation to snowboarding). When you skateboard, you aren’t on snow. You’re on wood or concrete. Falling on concrete or wood hurts. That’s why you learn how to fall when you learn skateboarding. It minimizes injuries.
Two tips on how to fall (from the National Safety Council):
- If you fall, try to roll rather than absorb the force with your arms.
- Even though it may be difficult during a fall, try to relax your body, rather than go stiff.
The best way to fall is to go with it. And the same applies in whatever you do. You are going to fail sometimes. And if you try to force the issue, if you insist that you didn’t make a mistake and steadfastly try to continue what you’re doing, it’ll hurt you more in the long run. The best thing to do about it is to just relax, and let it happen. Then get up, and move on.
How do you react when you fall?
[?]Snowboarding and Discomfort
Dec 5, 2007 Uncategorized
I’ve personally gone snowboarding a couple of times, and I’m decent at it (especially considering I don’t get too much practice being in Singapore). I’m not good by any means, but I get by, and don’t fall. And what I’m writing here is based on what my experience learning snowboarding.
2 points. One about apparent risk, and one about vision (and my personal failure).
Firstly, risk. Or rather, apparent risk. In snowboarding, if you want to turn, you lean in the direction you want to go. It’s not always the most comfortable position. It’s slightly off center; off balance, if you will. But it’s the only way for you to direct yourself, instead of being dictated by the environment, controlled by the curve of the slope. It might seem risky (you’re off balance, leaning to one side, seemingly more likely to fall), but in the larger picture, it’s the only way to be sure of where you’re going.
In life, sometimes you have to do what seems risky. You have to go off-kilter a bit. You need to know where you want to go, and lean in that direction. It might seem risky, it might bring you off balance for a while. But in the end that’s the best bet you have if you want to control your own path.
My second point is more about my personal failure in snowboarding, the biggest thing I myself have trouble with. I never manage to board toe side (with my back facing downhill). I always struggled with being unable to see where I was going. I knew where I was going. I could see the slope before I got on the board, and I’m pretty sure the slope didn’t change. But just the inability to see where I’m headed as I’m moving made me nervous. And that has held me back (until now) from going to the next level in my snowboarding. It’s something that I need to get over.
Again, this lesson can be applied to life as well. I personally have to learn this lesson as well. Sometimes, it’s hard to take a step without being able to see where you’re going. Even if you’ve seen the path before hand. But sometimes, if you don’t take that ‘blind’ step, you won’t be able to progress to the next level.
Both these lessons have a common thread, though. Doing something that might not be comfortable. Because, as Curt Rosengren, the M.A.P Maker, told us, being too comfortable can be bad.
I’ll leave you with the same two questions as Curt, because I don’t think I could phrase them any better.
How are you exploring your Discomfort Zone right now? How could you?
Photo taken by Jasmic
[?]Michael Jordan
Nov 13, 2007 Uncategorized
Michael Jordan is well known as arguably the best basketball player of all time. But something I just found out today, apparently he had an 18 month stint as a baseball player, in the Minor League with the Birmingham Barons.
SneakerFiles tells us that “[i]n his time spent as an outfielder, MJ had a .202 batting average in 127 games, 114 strikeouts in 436 at bats, 3 home runs, 51 RBI’s, 30 stolen bases, and led the Southern League outfielders with only 11 errors.” That’s not a bad set of statistics. But it’s nowhere near the top players. And the top was where he was with basketball.
I can’t read minds, so I can’t say for sure, but maybe that’s why he went back to basketball. Yes, he’s decent at baseball, but he would not have made a name for himself doing that. He was good, but not exceptional. He wasn’t remarkable. He was just above average. And being above average isn’t enough. So he quit, and chose to focus on something he knew he could be the best at. And we all know how that turned out.
This is kind of the point Seth Godin makes with The Dip. If you’re not going to be the best at it, quit. Sometimes it’s better to cut your losses, than try to pursue something you’ll only be “above average” at. To truly succeed, you need to play completely to your strengths, and really be the best.
Is there something that you should be quitting today?
[?]
