Ever wondered, why would and how could the legendary pole vaulter Sergei Bubka break the world record (mostly his own previous best!) 35 times…yes you read it right…a whopping 35 times!!
While pondering over this, few more questions got triggered:
What influences our response to ‘fight-or-flight’ situations?
Why is it that, for some best comes out when in crisis?
This is what I refer to as ‘Challenging the challenge’ syndrome
Try this simple DIY self-test:
Initiate a task/activity/drill that’s more tougher/difficult/draining that what you are currently doing and see how easily you conquer the current task at hand!
For e.g. if you are currently under a lot of professional or work related pressures which is demanding and stressful, try taking up an equal, if not uphill, personal challenge that physically or mentally challenges your limits. Like many of us take to long distance running or biking or pursue executive education programmes.
Insane as it may sound, the reality is you will excel in both the professional and personal accomplishment. It goes without saying your earlier professional stress will automatically become a lesser challenge!
Why and from where does this extra adrenaline come from?
Why was it not there when I had only one challenge?
Why as soon as I confronted it (complemented it as it turns out to be eventually!) with another challenge, this one seemed like a cake walk, well at least it ‘seemed’ to be!
Let me also add here challenges can also be in the form of constraints like stringent timelines, limited financial or any other resources.
Linked to this and very close to my heart is the adage ‘work expands to fill time’. Which correlates to another one which we have heard since childhood ‘an idle mind is a devils workshop’…so corollary to both of these would be ‘an optimally occupied mind is a fertile land full of energy and ideas’. Isn’t it?
So when we stipulate a lesser but optimum amount of ‘resources’ the task gets done more efficiently and effectively. (Difference between these two words in a later post..worthy of a post!)
So what am I hinting at…you guessed it right…it’s all about one’s ‘attitude’! – we all have heard these decorative corporate adjectives – ‘go getter’, ‘super achiever’, ‘fast track talent’, ‘maverick entrepreneur’, ‘self initiator’….what do they all boil down to – ‘attitude’!
Now perhaps, I understand better know why as a kid at school, we all went have through this ‘aaha’ moment – syllabus or exams of Class 6 felt so much easier when we went into Class 7 and so on!
Will leave you with this thought that we all were born with this inherent attitude…well most of us!
May be it’s just got hidden under a debris of negative emotions, self pity and pseudo-beliefs based on past failures, negative feedbacks and such roadblocks along the way.
So just clear the debris and let what’s inherent within you rise high and stand tall. Hail ‘Attitude’!
P.S: Though I need not say this but just to be clear, I have used the word ‘attitude’ throughout this post only in a positive way and it must not be read or construed even with the slightest of negative connotation that it could carry!
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