Your Sorting Hat: On silver medals, age limits and leaving your phone
Career Tuesday
Careers, Life and Questions (Aug 06, 2024)
Wish you a Happy Career Tuesday! More thoughts from the Olympics.
3 Career Ideas
I.
"Bronze medalists are happier than silver medalists at the Olympics!
Is a well known phenomenon, especially in knockout games.
This is an example of counterfactual thinking where we respond emotionally not to what happened but what might have happened. Thus the bronze medalist is happier to have 'not missed out on a medal' where a silver medalist is unhappier to have 'missed out on the gold.'
Make sure you and your teams give the "silver medal" its due!"
II.
"An athlete has a plan leading to the next Olympics which is once every 4 years only.
What's your Gold Medal plan for next year's appraisal?
Who do you want to be, what will you learn and how will you deliver by that date?"
III.
"The British men’s 8-rowing team won the Gold in the 2000 Sydney Olympics after a gap of 88 years. Their secret?
Every single personal or team action had to clear one question - ‘Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?’
If the answer was 'No' - the decision was 'NO'!
How clearly can you visualise your future? What is your implementation question?"
2 Life Quotes from Books
I.
Dara Torres, 12 time Olympic swimming medalist including 3 silver medals in 2008 at age 41, in her book - Age Is Just a Number: Achieve Your Dreams at Any Stage in Your Life -
"Never put an age limit on your dreams...
...The water doesn't know how old you are."
Source: Book: Age is just a number - Dara Torres
II.
Venus Williams, 4 Olympic gold medals in tennis, on belief -
"You have to believe in yourself when no one else does -- that makes you a winner right there...
...Just believe in yourself even if you don’t, pretend that you do and, at some point you will.
Source: Quote: Venus Williams
1 Question
For which activities do you switch off your phone or leave it behind? Do you accept what it says about your priorities?
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Until next week,
Devashish Chakravarty
Author of YourSortingHat
Columnist for Careers at The Economic Times