No pain, no gain. If you want to achieve your objectives or realise your goals, you have to be prepared for a daily dose of pain and discomfort. Work hard. Training will take a big chunk of your time but hey, no one said life’s a rose garden (unless you’re Paris Hilton). Even if you like to think so, you’ll still get pricked.
Always have a goal/target/objective of what you want to achieve in mind for yourself, or your family, or your group/team (and scoring goals too in the process). Like Captain Cesc and Diaby. Dream big. Always keep you eyes on the ball and don’t ever lose your focus!
Always be prepared and have a Plan B because you never know when things may go wrong, when crap occurs. A team-mate may suddenly get injured during training or in a match and everyone else would have to shoulder extra responsibility. You may get injured yourself. And if the latter scenario happens, it’s important to keep your sanity and concentrate on getting better. If you’re a manager, you need to be able to work out the logistics of getting the results with the team players you have left.
Teamwork is important and everyone has a role to play (in football: striker, midfielder, goalie, defender). It’s important to keep this in mind because things may fall apart if something happens to upset that balance or if anyone forgets his role. This is as true on the pitch as it is in a school or work project. As Shava told the Official Matchday Programme, ‘On the pitch it’s difficult to play alone! If we play well together as a team it becomes easy to show yourself and operate at your best as an individual.’ As Almunia and van Persie put it, team spirit is key.
Nobody likes a bully so always keep your patience and maintain a cool head. It doesn’t help for you to lose your temper which may result in your dismissal (fired from work/dropped from a project/get red-carded). Your hot-headedness will not only cost you but also your team. So don’t be selfish, indulge yourself in throwing tantrums or be too disagreeable because this may only result in you being given the marching order, your team losing a team member and your club and fans being robbed of the opportunity of a match played for three points with 11 men – and all because of your short-term personal satisfaction and instant gratification. Think win-win.
Always be a professional. So what if there are other clubs/organisations trying to win you and woo you over to their side? Have respect for yourself, your team-mates (your club), your boss and your fans. Don’t flirt with the temptation or the possibility of leaving your club because this will not endear yourself to the team at all. Oh sure, it is nice and lovely to be courted and promised greater reward but your loyalty is at test here. Or are you only motivated by money? (Wonder why cA$hley Cow/a**Hole and Adebuyout come to mind). It’s NOT all about the money.
Respect yourself – and your team-mates, your club, the fans that support you – and even your opponents (because we can always learn from our opponents) - and don’t cheat. Don’t play dirty, resort to questionable behaviour (diving, taking bribes) in and out of the pitch, and don’t suck up to anyone either. If you’re good, chances are people will notice your talents and skills anyway.
Claim ownership for your mistakes instead of blaming everyone else (like Adebuyout).
Take risks, move out of your comfort zone and explore other possibilities if you need to. Cesc left Barcelona when he was all of 16 and Shava left St. Petersburg at 28, having never left Russia ever before (except on international games of course) and despite knowing he could earn more in Russia. As Wenger put it, ‘To leave St Petersburg where he was the star and to go to England at 28 years of age and to say, ‘Okay, I want to start it all again’, you need to have strength of character and to like challenges. He does that in a very focussed way.’
If you don’t at first get it, try and try again. Persevere. Look at former boo-boy Emmanuel Eboue who accepted criticism and transformed himself from arch-villain to accepted-again player. And look at Gallas: stripped off his captaincy, he could have left the club altogether but decided to stick through and he’s saved us more times than I can remember. Accept criticism, take the right attitude and demonstrate your mental strength.
Respect each other even if you don’t see eye to eye. You can never get on with everyone at school or at work but be a professional and have a professional relationship anyway. As Wenger put it: ‘We have a united spirit but you have to take care of your attitude and the spirit in the side. It is as fragile as the weather in England. It can become quickly cloudy. When you have no attitude or spirit you have no results.’
You don’t win all the time. It’s impossible. Look at Tiger Wood, FedEx, Lewis Hamilton (and Alonso or Kimi. Nadal was number 1, then 2 and now number 3 in the world, all in a space of a few months): they don’t all win all the time. The important thing is to hold your head up high and not let defeat get to you. Think continuous improvement. Besides, there are lessons to be learnt from losing. After the defeat to ManUre, Shava said this in his website: ‘I’m upset about the result. Yes, we got our first defeat, which I think will only make us stronger. We will make necessary conclusions. Why did we lose? After we got in front, we shouldn’t have backed off, we should have stuck to our game and not play to hold the result. In the second half Man Utd increased intensity a bit and this ‘bit’ was enough to score two goals. That spurred us but that was too little too late. Minus three points.’ And besides, there is always room for improvement, as Wenger likes to say.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again: in life, you need a combination of a dose of luck, determination, perseverance, hard work, self-belief and confidence, especially - and even more - when it looks like the odds are against you. And as Dudú told Croatian newspaper Sports Novosti, ‘No problems last forever.’
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