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October 31, 2002
fear..
was watchin the portland-sacramento game tonite (the fifth consecutive game ive watched out of possible six). terrible game almost as one-sided as the wiz-celtics game earlier. for some reason, as much as i want the kings to beat the lakers i wanted the blazers to beat the kings. although i dont like the way the blazers play, i dont care much for the kings to beat em. anyways..
i was thinkin about how good rasheed wallace. i mean, there was no reason tonite for him to not take over portlands offense esp w/ cwebb out. but he didnt. most of his shots were jumpers and he was even fadin on em when defended by keon clark. i mean, CMON man!! clark has stilts for legs--you can bang against him in the post!!
anyways, i began to wonder about why sheed wasnt takin it in--why he was settlin for an outside shot. he has to know his talent and the potential resultin from that. wuts motivatin him to stay on the perimeter rather than postin up or drivin the lane? or maybe, wuts preventin him from doin wut he could easily do?
my deduction: fear..
im sure sheed is a competitive person and has a strong desire to win games. however, i got the feelin thru the course of this game that the fear he has of not bein successful in a seemingly-easy matchup for him weighed more on his mind than his concentration to actually make it so..
and i think im the same in many situations..
id say a lotta times the way i do things--maybe even live life--is driven by a fear that ill screw things up if i try my best. i mean if i give it my all and things dont work out, wut does that mean? that i tried and there is nothin more i couldve done--and so im a bonafide failure..
so wut do i often do when i have those thoughts? i dont try my hardest--my best effort. i hold back and if/when things dont work out, i have a reason. yes, a lame excuse to fall back on. i think this behaviour is described in social psychology; somethin called self-limitin.......i dont remember. if you do, lemme know..
since becomin enamored by michael jordan, ive tried to change this attitude. you know, the whole 'youll always miss 100% of the shots you dont take' idea. i mean, wut do i really hafta lose by givin my best that im not already losin by holdin back?
i dunno why i was extrapolatin all this from rasheed-cant-read wallace (or am i projectin?). maybe its just on my mind lately. but anyways, enough about me..
"i can accept failure. everyone fails at something. but i cant accept not trying.." - mj
Posted by cpaik at October 31, 2002 11:59 PM
Comments
Some people call this noise rather than fear. You just let all these doubts build up in your head from whatever sources: self, parents, friends, media, books, tv... Then you give these doubts too much control over your life. You give into the noise. Most things in life can be broken down to small decisions. Why don't you work on your resume? Why don't you click the send button to send it to an employer? Why don't you put an email in the to address? Fear? No, I don't think you are afraid of typing in an address. I think it is the noise in your head. This is what stops so many people from being successful. Some consider self control being able to not do things, like eating chocolate or french fries. The other side of it is you have to be able to do things.
Here's an example. My friend Dylan is not that competitive in medical school. He tests ok, but isn't in the top quartile of his class. He wants to do opthomalogy. That's a very competitive field, good pay, great hours. Some would tell him not to try, just do anasthesia. He is able to push out that noise and apply anyways. He's got 5 interviews lined up for optho programs. Yeah! Another guy in his class, does better in school than Dylan. He also wants to do Optho, but he lets the noise get in his head and stop him. He thinks its too competitive and just applies to anasthesia where he feels he can get interviews. Result: 0 interviews for Optho. Could he have gotten some interviews? Sure. Why doesn't he have any now? Noise.
Don't let it distract you from your goals.
Posted by: harry at November 4, 2002 11:52 AM