I read an interesting story about the legendary chess player, Garry Kasparov and his rival, Anatoly Karpov. In 1990, the two iconic chess player played 24 games in three months to decide the World Chess Champion. At this time (1990), Garry was the defending champion. The first 12 games held in New York City and the last 12 games in Lyon, France.
Garry started well, but he lost confidence during his seventh game and lost various games to Karpov. At the end of the 12th game in New York, the score was tied 6-6. According to the source, Garry showed he was nervous and confused.
A writer, Fred Waitzkin and son, Josh Waitzkin, which was a young chess player spent time with Garry during those days. One day, Fred asked Garry, “how would you deal with your lack of confidence in the next 12 matches,”? He said — “he would fake his confidence and play like he is confident”. He said — “maybe that would bring out the real confidence in him”. This is in Josh's audio book
During the second 12 games, Garry did what he told Fred, and he played so well. He took over the game and placed fear in Karpov's mind. Karpov only got two wins in the games. Garry had 10 wins and remained the World Chess Champion.
Karpov was getting it in the first round, but Garry showed what he felt he had lost. In the early 20s’, Chelsea FC in England signed a player, Didier Drogba from France. He started little but grew to be among the most powerful strikers in England. Whenever he is on the field of play, many defenders focus on him as if other players can not get to the goal line.
There was a time he was seriously injured, but the team was supposed to play a big match. A few minutes to the match, the coach announced that Didier Drogba is back and fit for the match. People could not believe it, but we saw Drogba jogging in the field. After 30 minutes of playing, Chelsea was already leading, and he started holding the place he was injured. He managed through the second half.
After 60 min, Chelsea already got a cleared victory, and they substituted Drogba. What happened?
Didier Drogba was never fit for the match. The coach knew the opponent would focus on him, but he was only there to cause a distraction for the defenders, and other Chelsea players were scoring.
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Fake it for success.
Garry lost his confidence during a match that would have removed his name from the World Championship in 1990, but he displayed fake confidence to get the actual confidence and victory he wanted and remained the champion for another 10 years. Chelsea lost their best striker to injury, they fake the injured player to cause distraction and got a crucial victory. These are two different things, but all for success.
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Act and think like it.
Your mental view could say a different thing, but your physical reaction could help it. I have found myself when I tried to do something and I would be overwhelmed with fear, but I fake confidence and become bold along the way. The first step to be what you want to be is to act like it. You want to be a speaker but have lots of stage fright, play along and fake it. See yourself as Tony Robbins and speak freely. The confidence would come along. Play it as if you created it. Do it like it is your best. Your actions can give you a confident mindset. Last, never show your weakness.
Build Up
