THE LAST MILE STRIKES AGAIN..!!

Been a long long while since I published something. Here comes the eleventh one in the series and the favorite “The Last Mile” strikes again. I have often had problems getting over the line and this latest one is a classic. Probably takes it all to another level and as most of the times, this also comes from the field of sports.

Post my interview with a corporate giant where I couldn’t crack the final round I thought that I gave it my best shot and probably the competition grabbed it due to their excellent performance. Absolutely acceptable. You know, you come out of an interview and try to analyze what went wrong. Maybe I could have answered that question this way.. or Maybe I should have quoted this..or that example.. or maybe I had the chance if I would have thought a bit more before applying n stuff.. The key takeaways are only that come to you when you think about the interview for the first couple of times. Ultimately you end up over analyzing situations and no positives generally come from the later ones. Anyways, Sorry I digressed from the story.

We had a Table Tennis tournament in our College where we played Doubles against a lesser known team. They played well but I think we played better for most part of it. Where it gets interesting is the end of the 3rd and the Final set. We had 4 match points. YES. 4 f****ng match points and we managed to squander them all. The game went on for 10 deuces. I haven’t played in a game like that ever. And we had a few decent shots in that period also. But we managed to fuck it all up and loose.

This brought the thought of The Last Mile back to me where I have often had problems crossing THAT line. Even though I have been able to do that at times, but now seriously I doubt my ability to do so. I lost the singles to the same guy, but that was coz he played well. We lost the doubles, coz I couldn’t win it.

To bring a perspective to this, if I count all the tournaments, it’s like 70% for me where I couldn’t cross the line despite being in a winning position. That’s what has been playing on my mind and driving me crazy. I better get an answer to it soon enough or else I don’t know what will happen.. :P

Last two months have been close to the toughest time I had been through over a very long time coz of my Injury. Not being able to play and channel the aggression and frustration on positive things, made me very short tempered at times. Being flustered is not what I like but that happened multiple times over that last few months. Probably a win would like this would have helped me get back on my toes, regain some senses, but I think it’ll have to wait a bit.

So a Win is my target now, I don’t know where or what Win, but one has to be around the corner.

As they very famously say: You NEVER win Silver, you ALWAYS LOOSE Gold.

Beginner's Luckk..!!

I was thinking about Beginner's Luck and I strongly believe that its something that everybody does come across at some point in their lives(Just they dont realise what it is..)...
My first time was in School days when I won the first tennis tournament that I played.. I did play very hard to get there, but eventually luck also did play its part(Got an easier draw than the other finalist)...!!

Have you ever wondered why you won the first time you played against the odds or even the first time you gambled... Be it with your friend for a cup of tea.. or with a colleague over result of a game.. or even at a Casino...
This is what is referred to as Beginner's Luck... Its a phenomenon whose causes are unknown...
It is speculated, however, that beginner's luck arises from a disconnect between the player and the pressure of the game. A novice player is inexperienced and consequently is not expected to do well. This means that there is no pressure on the player to excel; this lack of pressure allows the player to concentrate more than a pressured veteran player.

This also worked for me when I gambled for the first time in a Casino... There's a State tourism bus in most of the US states that take you to a nearby casino and even pay you a cut to play in one of their associated ones..!! On one fine evening I took this bus to the CEASER'S palace in Atlantic city.. Entered the Casino and didnt have much know-how. Still roaming around somehow managed to make a 100 bucks out of the 20 bucks that were given to us by the bus operators. In this while I played Blackjack(21), Roulette, Wheel of fortune n stuff.. Till then I was placing $5 bets at whatever I was playing.. A $100 worth of treasury pushed me to place higher stakes and within 20 min I was down to 20 bucks that the tour operator had given me.. I quietly walked to the cashier's window and got those cashed. I didnt earn a penny there but did learn something that has been with me all this time.

I believe everybody has a Beginner's Luck, but not everybody knows when to call it 'a quit'. If you learn the art of gambling to that precise moment and then quit, it will always reap rich rewards.. Gambling is just a symbol I've used to depict things in a manner that they could be easily understood.
It will be risky at times, but you cant just take a backseat and let things happen.

To get where you want to, you'll have to gamble, take risks but remember to call 'Quit' at the right time..!!