Where are you heading today and has anyone arrived before you?
What brought them to the place you want to go?
Which part of the world are you?
Have you mapped out the steps to your destination?
Do you think you can sustain this journey based on your circumstances like health, diet and training plan?
Listen to the Podcast
I was watching the Martian on the plane a few weeks back on my way to London.
No I’m not going to talk about the movie, it’s just that something in the show taught me a lesson on direction that I thought to share it with you.
Are You Heading in the Right Direction?
So just a short introduction for people who haven’t watched it, the Martian is about this group of astronauts who went to Mars on a mission and left one of their crew members behind because of a huge storm that sort of separated them.
They lost this member, his name is Mark by the way, and the leader had to save the rest, so they had to get back to Earth.
Spoiler alert, or maybe quite expected, Mark turned out alive and so he went about to find a way to survive on Mars. You can go catch it to see what he did. A bit on relentless lesson going on there.
Later in the show, the crew members found out about him being alive, they want to go get him and due to circumstances, they couldnt just fly to Mars and pick him up. They had to sort of catch him in mid-space without knowing if they could even get hold of him or not.
They’ve made their calculations, they have gone through the processes of measuring and figuring out how much speed they had to move and what trajectory and angle to place their ship in order to meet him as precisely as they could.
They had to do all that, they couldn’t just try to hit, miss and try again, it’s as good as there’s no second try to this. They are in space, not on Earth land.
When it’s time to catch Mark, somehow Mark had to move in space to control himself and go in the right direction, if not he will miss the mother ship and fly into space off the course. If this happens he will most likely not live and get to go home.
I’m not revealing what happened in the end, because that’s for you to find out. But I have a point here.
That is, we can do all the calculations and measurements in the world, we can do all the math. But if we take off in the wrong direction, without adjusting and making corrections, without having a way to u-turn or reverse, we will never arrive.
At the same time, even if we know where we want to go but we don’t do the math and necessary calculations to take us there, we may also miss the boat. There is a chance we may hit the boat, but the chances are slim. Even if we made it there, we may not make it the second time because we didn’t learn how to calculate the way to get there.
So, if we all want to succeed, we need talent, measurement, direction and hard work. These are the necessary processes to get us there without giving us too much headache, stress and frustration which further cloud our minds to think and act right.
With further reference to the Martian the movie, for Mark, the whole process of him solving problems to go home and land on Earth is equivalent to us becoming a better version of ourselves.
What do I mean by that?
What happens when Mark comes back to Earth? He can survive and do the things he wants to do, he can move on in a place he belongs. Being on Mars was lonely, cold and he cannot get on with his life in comfort there.
Same for us as athletes, it’s only when we become better and improve, then we can enjoy our games and feel more in tune with our own body and go for the win.
On the flip side, for Mark to just focus on going home is equivalent to athletes only focusing to win, without thinking about how to get there.
For Mark, if he only thinks about going home, then he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on what it takes to go home.
When I imagine myself on Mars, if I focus only on going home, I’ll feel panicky, I feel like there’s no hope, I feel trapped and inevitably start to worry I will never get there because home is so far away and I don’t have the equipment to ship myself back.
What I should focus on is on the “how” and using the most of what I have to build a ship to take me back, or create something to help me survive, or work my way around to get a signal to get help.
If we were to focus on going home, we will not be able to work under pressure and perform. We need to think in steps, not in results.
Let me share with you the questions I’ve given myself over the years to help me
Where are you heading today and has anyone arrived before you?
What brought them to the place you want to go?
Which part of the world are you?
Have you mapped out the steps to your destination?
Do you think you can sustain this journey based on your circumstances like health, diet and training plan?
In case you prefer to absorb this by reading, for today’s show notes, links and more, you can go to starplayeracademy.com/podcast, sign up for my newsletter while you’re there, all you get is my best stuff to your inbox to better yourself everyday.
If you have any burning question to becoming a better player, let me know. It’s not going to happen now, remember this is a long game, but I promise you that I will take you by the hand and walk with you on this journey.
All I want to do is to help you become a better version of yourself in your sport.
If you want to find me, go to Twitter @MarilynWo.
I always believe that if I want to be part of a competitive team, there is never enough. It’s different from being contented with oneself.
In this context, I would say that being an athlete, there’s not only the need to be accountable and responsible for one’s actions to perform my best, but also to make a positive impact to my team. With these values in mind, there is never enough. I can never ever give enough and it’s okay, that’s what I believe and that’s how jobs in sports should be done.
Even in anything we do in life, making an impact should always be of priority.
I’m not saying we should beat ourselves up if we never made an impact in one situation or another.
I’m saying, we should always abide such rules and move in such a direction. This direction is right, at least to me, and this direction always brings out the true vision of an athlete. This athlete will never waver, always be consistent and committed to their actions, plans and goals.
My desire always leads to me being resilient, so if at any point in time I fail to fulfil something based on my values, I pick myself up and try again.
Awesome show today, have a great day everyone, see you next week!
Big thanks to Dexter Britain for composing such wonderful inspiring music:The Time to Run
Thanks for listening!
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