So yesterday I was competing on a Tennis Match in my hospital. Unsurprisingly, I lose. Two years ago I join the same competition but I lose again. Somehow I wasn’t sad since I did not seriously competing. I join because I want to participate. I’m doing this for myself. I want to be a part of the game. I did not routinely practice because well, I did not opted to win. For me, the fact that I was willing enough to join the competition is a champ already. A short champ. My opponent was 10 years younger than me ( I think) and he plays better than me. But somehow in the middle of the game, I realized something. Somehow I lose because my own thought. You can not expect something to win when you are well, not expecting enough to win. If you’re putting yourself in mind that you want to win this thing, and I mean you want it BADLY, then you’re gonna spend a lot of hours to practice and eventually compete. But I did not want it enough, somehow it’s not my priority at the moment, I played tennis just because, well, I like it. And I like to play it with my friends, have some fun. But the interesting part is that, all of my residency friends were cheering for me. Even when I was not at my top game, they still cheering for me! I just realized that eventhough I’m not thinking that I’m the best one, but my friends were acknowledging me as one of the best one. So, I think here’s where my confidence is lacking. I feel that I’m not good enough to win while actually everyone has a shot to win. That revolving thought keep going in my mind that resulting in me not being focus while playing.

So, above all, the key of winning-not only in sports, but also everything is to gain focus. And how to gain focus is basically had been researched in most publications of mental health, but the important thing that matters is – be fully present. Here’s some tips :

1. Describe what you are doing right now

In order to make your mind fully giving attention for what you’re doing, best describe the activity step by step. It will eliminate all the other thoughts (read:worry, fear, anxious). In example, if you’re serving a ball in a tennis, you might want to think like this way : First I’m gonna throw the ball real high, then give it a full power, and aim for the box. Instead of thinking That’s okay if I’m not hitting it correctly, I still have one more shot or my serve is sucks! I should’ve practice more.

It will work the same when you are doing any other important thing such as doing your homework, studying, or even doing chores at home.

2. I’m gonna enjoy it as if it is my last time

You’re probably doing so many repetitive things that you lost the touch of sensing the actual work. You keep thinking the other thing. It happened when I lead a jama’ah prayer two days ago, then I forgot to read aloud the ayah on my second raka’at. I felt embarassed when I remember it on my third jama’ah, and the reason is because I kept thinking i feel bad because I was a little late for my prayer. The unresolving thought did not help you to gain consciousness during the pray. So in an important activity such as praying, you might want to think when you start the pray that It’s going to be your last time. You want to enjoy and fully attend as much as possible. That also works for any other thing, serving a customer, studying, reading, or even any other simple thing.

3. Do not fear to be judged

Yes, I think most of the time we don’t work so well because we kept trying to do our best in front of others. In that term, it felt like that we’re not doing it wholeheartedly. Those kind of feeling had some holes. If you’re doing it all right, but you made a little mistake, your boss will ditch you for those small mistake instead of praising all the other stuffs that were right. It displeased your peace of mind, and you felt that you’re not doing good enough and create you in a stressful state. Do it for yourself, or even better, doing it wholeheartedly for your God if what you’re dong is a good deed. God is the best judge of all, and you will not feel wronged after all.

4. Stop multitasikng

Gaining focus – I think it is the sole important thing that matters right now. That determine our success. Being able to focus in every task is a habit that is needed to be learned. And in order to create new habit, we have to be fully focus in gaining focus itself. Stop multitasking. Not only it will give distraction, you won’t find any enjoyment and you won’t doing it well in each task. Ask your subconsious mind, have I grasp the task that I’m currently doing?

I hope these tips help. See you around!