It certainly works for me. Being a
Professional Cue Artist in the sports of ‘Billiards’,
I have come to had this kind of Mindset with me since
I started out at the age of 13. Back then, with such Mindset
it has driven me with success in the Local and International scene
when I was donning for the National Colours. (A Semi Retired
Professional now). I got to tell you that by having such
Mindset, it helped me to have a slight advantage against others.
Thus, this applies well for me in the ‘Working’
environment.
It is undeniable that, to be truly
good in what you’re doing you got to have Passion and
Self-Believe/Confidence. These are the 2 main elements to
break through the mind that perceives limitations. That holds true
for everything. Only certain Individuals are able to get on to an
elite level at their sport, there are the ones that have the mindset
that I am going to describe throughout this post.
Passion- First and
foremost, the most important element is having the Passion for
whatever you are doing. It can be described as a certain drive or
fire that keeps moving you forward in order to get as good as you
can. You enjoy it so much that nothing gets in your way when you put
the time and effort into practising. You have to LOVE what you
do. Many love it, some tolerate it, some get frustrated with their
job, and it brings us to the next question- Does that mean you can’t
be passionate about what you’re doing? Not at all!
A personal example is when I first
lepak (hang out) at Billiards Centre with my older cousins, I
fell in love with this but also hated it as I
was not even tall enough to reach the table to hit the balls.
Although the dissatisfaction was there, but I still gave me best to
do it and in the end I never took account of the height requirement.
It is the same
as Working.
Many of us dislike what we do as not everyone has their “Dream
Job” but we need to see the
bigger picture here which is “Making
a Living” which explains-
being passionate about the job. No! It is all about being passionate
about how well I did the job…Yes!
So,
paraphrasing a verse Stephen Stills penned,
If
you can't be in the job you love…
Love the job you're in (or the
way you do it)
Self-Believe/Confidence –
After Passion, this is the next element. It plays such an
important role in our life on a daily basis of what we are doing.
Most of the time we just go on with our day without ever thinking
about how confident we feel about ourselves-
That is, until we are face with a
huge decision to make or we need to perform a certain task and expect
to do it well.
So creating a mindset with the
Self-Believe/Confidence becomes a very important quality that we can
apply to most situations before they even occur, thus making those
challenging moments so much easier to contend with and to help us
feel better in facing them.
There was quite a number of times,
when I came to face tougher opponents in tournaments, most people
including my team mates would tell me, tough luck for you, you’re
in no luck to face that person and other negative thoughts I would
hear. As for me, I didn’t allow this to disturb me but just took it
as an advice. This is because my confidence level is so high that I
wouldn’t want to admit defeat even before the game could start.
As an example,
in the game of Football, the Mighty Liverpool is up against
the minnows Stoke City. All the football fans, pundits and
bookmakers predicted an easy victory- stroll in the park for
Liverpool but the end result was Stoke City 6 – 1 Liverpool.
–See what I meant? This is no miracle to it as Stoke City totally
outplayed their Opposition and made everyone a “Fool” for
doubting them.
Back in the “Working”
environment, you need to have this kind of Mindset if you wish
to succeed in your daily work activities. You may start off by
creating a Vision(Dream) board that you can look at it
constantly. This is a great way to form positive beliefs and give you
a physical “goal getter” to refer to first thing in the morning,
last thing in the evening, and anytime in between.
Surround yourself with positive
energy. I’m amazed how many people continue to let destructive
influences into their life from others. Join a group of like-minded
people that you can relate to and share with and that empower you, or
start one by yourself. Stop hanging around with those individuals
that suck your energy away and bring you down. Start associating with
those that lift you up and energize together towards the same
‘Goals’.
Lastly, accomplish something, no
matter how insignificant it seems, that gives you some satisfaction
that you are moving in the right direction. Confidence come from
results- usually positive results. Don’t just sit around and wait
for things to come your way.
Guess that’s all from me for now.
Feel free to ask me for a game or two in Billiards. Most welcome!
Robert Cheah,
Assistant Manager Sales &
Marketing
Vision College