The Wellness of Performance

There’s no room for baggage on the field of play – it just clutters things up and gets in the way of the game. Leave it all on the sideline, or in the changing room – or, better still, keep it out of your life altogether. In aspiring to be a masterful competitor it’s worth remembering that the best fighters, the best players, always ‘travel light’.

OOO

“I think you can’t be afraid when you go into a match.
If you’re afraid that you’re not going to do well enough then you’ll just be trying to replicate what you think other people want you to do.

And, like pretending to sneeze, replicating is never the way to convince people that you know what you’re doing.

Part of being on the field and involving your team mates with your performance, and connecting with the opposition as well, is not thinking twice about everything you’re doing – you just have to be really well prepared. As prepared as you can be.

You’re never completely ready – you just do your best in the moment.

I think really the best thing you do when you go into a match, regardless of whatever has been going on in your life beforehand - is just to go into it looking forward to it, expecting it to be a lot of fun, and realise that everyone involved wants to have fun, they want to enjoy the performance, or if not have fun - at least have a satisfying experience. 

So they are going to look for that in the contest, and if you have a satisfying experience of being on the field then that really helps with the unity of yours and the team’s performance.   

And in terms of preparation, there is no shortcut around taking care of yourself.”

OOO

The pleasure is all about playing the game. There is added pleasure in playing the game skilfully, and skills are a set of processes. If you apply those sets of processes well, then you can compete. Competing can only be a pleasure if you link it to applying your skills and your love of playing the game. And out of the pleasure of competing well comes the satisfaction of true success.

So, what of winning?

If you only play the game to win then, sadly, you can never have the satisfaction of true success.

And to this end, you can also take the parallel view that life is a game - not a drudge, a chore or a duty - and that you have every right to be part of the pleasure of the game.