Impatience..The killer of dreams!

One of the best periods of my professional badminton career as well as life was between 2008-2010. 

My graph that time was going up at a really fast pace. I had also just started dating the girl who’s my wife now. But that’s a story for another time.  Professionally, we (my doubles partner and I) were being considered as one of the promising upcoming talents of the country that time. It was the same time that I was fortunate enough to represent India in few of the biggest tournaments in the world. I played World Championships and Thomas Cup during that time. It was also the time when I obtained my career high world ranking of 33. 

Overall, I was riding high on success that eventually got into my head. Here’s the thing with success. It really changes your attitude. In my case, it made me more impatient. I became greedy about becoming more and more successful at the earliest possible opportunity. In short, I lost my mental balance. 

I would think so much ahead of time that I wouldn’t even bother to look around and show gratitude for what was there in my hand. No sooner had I reached 33 in rankings, I was already wishing of being in top 20 or maybe even top 10. I was only comparing my graph with people who were ahead of me. Never did I consider looking back to just be a little grateful for what I had.

This eventually brought about my downfall. I was so impatient that I started considering my partner as a liability rather than an asset. I thought of him as somebody who was dragging me down rather than somebody who was helping me achieve my goals. Frequent ego clashes started taking place between us. 

As a result, we split up. At a time when I should have been pushing for greater success, say maybe trying to qualify for London Olympics, I went back to square one. I had to start from zero with a new partner and begin the cycle again. 

Looking back, I realise now that when you are going through a purple patch in your career or life, it is imperative to remain humble and grateful. And thinking about many others who’d jump at the chance of being in your shoes is one trick that works in remaining humble and grateful. 

Otherwise, you might become very greedy with success to the point where you’d start thinking of success as your birthright. That would really be a recipe for disaster.

So people behaving very cocky with success, be warned.

Om Shanti….?