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The Chevrons (Zimbabwe men’s national cricket team) could not win against visiting India much to the disappointment of the Zimbabweans.
The manner and fashion in which the Chevrons gave this tour away to India is what disappoints and irks many a heart. The loss follows the disappointing loss of our men’s national soccer team outfit, the Warriors, to Zambia in the Cosafa tournament.
Fans remain hopeful that one day our national teams will return to winning ways and bring us the much needed national pride and accolades in the sporting arena.
Take note that this is not a sports article, but a motivational article, written by an author who is also disheartened by the miscarriage of many of our national representatives in the sporting arena.
Upon careful reflection and analysis of the matches, most of our losses boil down to mental weakness of our national teams much more than any other factor. Dear reader, though India is a powerhouse in world cricket remember that Zimbabwe Cricket has been on a team rebuilding exercise, making the Chevrons better experienced than most cricket teams in the world.
Most of our teams and athletes lose on the playing field because they carry a defeated mindset. You don’t need psychic powers to foretell their loss, it’s written all over their body language.
The media, even our own national media, doesn’t make the situation better by tagging us underdogs every time we compete on the international front. That right there is the problem. We have grown so accustomed to losing that most of the time we rationalise our poor performance by demanding that we lose, gracefully or competitively.
All matches are played at some place first before they are physically played out in turfs and stadiums. Your life, dear reader, is also played out somewhere before it manifests outwardly.
The mind is the world’s greatest stadium where all matches are predetermined before they are beamed onto our televisions. The mind is the world’s greatest theatre, where you showcase your life. If you carry a poor performance in the mind there is no way you can deliver a grand performance outwardly.
Invest in making sure that you condition your mind the right way. Mental conditioning is the difference between champions and losers; it is the distinction between excellence and average.
This is so evident in our national teams. Those who follow them will always tell tales of how they narrowly lost, or how they gave away a match easily. We worry much about technical departments and administration, but forget one crucial factor, the mental fitness of our players. This is the major missing link.
Realise that all winners have a winning mentality. Most of the time it is not about their size, Sachin Tendulkar or Lionel Messi would not be regarded as magicians in their respective games.
It’s not also about experience, otherwise players as young as Chelsea’s Oscar would not be known the world over. Winning is a mindset! A winning mindset is all that you need to start performing as a winner.
Though experience is necessary, stories of inexperienced champions are there and numerous.
Remember young David, with no experience on the battlefront pulled down a medal fighter, Goliath in his first battle. The reason behind David’s victory was a winning mindset which he reminded all who tried to stop him.
David told them of how he killed a lion and a bear with bare hands. He didn’t fight like the underdog though he was surely carrying the underdog tag.
If you desire winning to become your lifestyle, start investing in building up your mind. Build it into a powerful fortress that does not allow any self-doubt or self-pity.
Don’t allow the world or their comments to put you off or to attach an underdog tag on you. You are only an underdog as far as you allow yourself to be one! Teach your mind to function in winning mode only.
There’s no lion that goes hunting doubting that it will catch its prey. Observe how lions hunt. They at times fail to catch up their target, but that does NOT take away the winner in them. If you do not want to win, why play in the first place?
Read the right books, listen to the right people, treasure the right thoughts, create a winning mindset, and then success becomes your daily lifestyle.
Till next week, God Bless you all. Ciao . . .
The writer is a motivational teacher. He can be contacted on [email protected].
Online Reporter