Mind Master: Winning Lessons from a Champion’s Life

by Viswanathan Anand

It always makes sense to keep working at goals without obsessing over how far you’re from it or how hopelessly you’re missing the mark each time. If you persevere, it will eventually be yours.

There’s something to be said about working towards achieving a goal without obsessing over how far you’re from it or how hopelessly you’re missing the mark each time. Once you shut out the clamour of the result and simply persevere, success is bound to be yours.

Motivation, I believe, ebbs and flows to its own rhythms and might have nothing to do with the effort we put into feeling it or the control we attempt to exercise over it. I’ve found that I’ve played my most inspired games when my enthusiasm for the sport resurfaced, without the bindings of titles or wins or ratings tying me down, and I’ve just wanted to play a good game and have been excited about learning something new or applying something fresh. There’s no quick path to finding motivation, but the moment you surrender to your love for your sport – or your career or choice of activity, for that matter – is where the highest probability lies.