So many things constitute a beginning — a new job, a new position, a new year, a new quarter, a new week, a new day. Beginnings are the harbinger of great promise. Soon enough, the enthusiasm has faded away and seems old.
Rohit Sharma is one of the most prolific run-scorers in international cricket and by the time his career is done, he will be regarded as one of the greats of the game.
While everyone is constantly playing catch up with his records, there is one area where Rohit Sharma himself is paying catch-up — his test career.
For some reason, he hasn’t been able to replicate his form in limited-overs cricket in tests. In the ongoing test series against South Africa, he hammered centuries in both the innings, not bad for someone who sounded like he had given up on his test career a year back when he said he had stopped worrying about whether or not he would be picked in the Test squad.
While scoring two centuries in a test match is not a joke, Rohit Sharma has steeper challenges that await him if he is to cement his place in test cricket and become a legend in that format of the game. When playing in India, he has the conditions and crowds on his side. He has to score in countries like England, Australia and South Africa for people to consider him a star in test cricket. In those countries, the pitches are hostile and the conditions will be against him. This is why players treasure winning abroad so much.
Rohit Sharma isn’t the first cricketer who has struggled to make this transition. There are many others who have not made the leap from being limited-overs stars to test cricket stars as the skillset and mindset required for test cricket is different.
Think of it — a person who has scored multiple double centuries in ODI cricket has to prove himself in another format.
In many ways, he has to start from scratch.
Today is Ayudha Puja, a day that is thought to be an auspicious one to start something new.
So many things constitute a beginning — a new job, a new position, a new year, a new quarter, a new week, a new day. Beginnings are the harbinger of great promise. Soon enough, the enthusiasm has faded away and seems old. This means we constantly search for new beginnings in a bid to reignite that feeling of starting something new.
That’s not really wise. It just means you risk having a series of projects that you begin but give up half-way. The feeling of beginning something isn’t always the best reason to begin something.
The hard part is this — beginning, every day.
Every time I sit down to write, I am mired with self-doubt. There are days when I breeze through my writing and times when I plow through it. There really is no easy way. It’s inconsequential what I wrote yesterday, last week, last year. I have to begin, every day. This is the hard part — keeping the commitment.
When we have not succeeded in something, it isn’t because we didn’t have a goal — we probably didn’t make the commitment to show up, even when the times were tough. The people we admire didn’t find it easy either. They just decided to begin every day, whether they felt like it or not.
Showing up only once when it is easy means you will show up like Haley’s comet — on occasion or never. This means making the commitment to begin every day. And tomorrow. And the day after.
We attach a lot of importance to a new beginning but not much to beginning every day. That’s where the challenge, and the rewards, lie.
If you have found yourself to be stuck, today is a symbolic day to begin.
There really is no end to making a beginning.
P.S — I began a podcast to get to know my nephews better and it comes to life only when they visit. You can check it out here — https://anchor.fm/pawan-m/episodes/A-short-and-sweet-trip-to-the-North-East-e6d4aq
