Success vs. Joy
- LXVI -
Learn to Switch Off
While playing a game and attempting to pot a ball, I need to travel to the deepest depths within myself. That helps me to achieve mastery over technique by ensuring that my mind, body, and soul are in perfect equilibrium.
After considerable effort, even when one reaches a stage of pure concentration, there are events and distractions that may undermine your focus. I remember at least two occasions when this has happened to me.
The first was when my mother came in while I was playing the Gujarat state championship match. As she walked in, I saw her face was ashen and tense. I had to tell her to leave the room. The next occasion was when my wife Kiran walked in during a world championship. We had just been married. I looked at her straight in the eye and said “You can’t be in the arena when I am playing a match. If you insist, then please stay behind me so I can’t see you.”
I know that neither my mother nor my wife meant me any harm. On the contrary, they wanted to wish me well. What I had to explain to them was that their presence, and the fact that they were both very tense when they watched me play, could disturb my concentration, and as a consequence, affect my performance. I didn’t want their anxiety to weigh me down. While playing, I don’t want to think of anything other than my game. Whether I won or lost was important to them, but not to me. I was engrossed only in playing.
Those have been the two distractions that have affected me while I played. There is nothing else that has ever distracted me while playing a match. I am not the least bothered by sections of the audience jumping and screaming after a shot has been played, when flashlights keep popping all around me or even when the now ubiquitous mobile phone rings.
I feel I’m blessed with this ability to switch off and completely detach myself from everything.