Spirit

I said here that the spirit is important. I also said that without it the mind is easily confused. Let us explore a little deeper. A reminder here.

At the same conference I mentioned below, I noticed that the coaches from the same company were spread around the conference room. Some were expats working in Malaysia and some were locals. When we were served with extra materials, I noticed that the Malaysians coaches were required to kneel and give us the material with both hands and the expats didnt. So I asked why. The explanation was that it was the Malaysian culture to kneel. Hmmmmmmm.... Something doesnt ring true.

At tournaments in Perak, I noticed that parents just took verbal abuse on them and their kids. Happily it doesnt happen in KL. There the parents will fight.

So why the contrast? Same game. Question. How many Perak players do you see in National tournaments? And if they come how do most of them behave?

The spirit is strong. It takes alot to kill it off. Usually its chipped away slowly. When it is gone, you can see it in their eyes. The light is gone.

The killing of the spirit starts when you first ignore a child in distress, when you accept an insult or an untruth about you. When your achievements are undervalued.

And it strengthens everytime you celebrate an act of courage, perform an act of courage.

Without the spirit, you start to accept the rationalisations for the abuse. The twisting of logic. We need to preserve the spirit. That is the core from where we fight back. Where we say we are as good as anyone out there. That we can be GM or Super duper GM if we choose to; if we are willing to pay the price.

If the spirit dies, its lifelong. It affects every facet of your being. If you are not careful, you start to believe the lies, to accept the untruths. You start to rationalise for them. So claim it back if you have lost it somewhere along the way. It's not totally gone. It's still there. The spirit is strong.