Mind-Set and Match!

Hey Folks! I'm pretty sure that the few readers I have will be surprised to see another post this quick especially after a few posts earlier this week.

This post is about mindset - something central to my formula of success. The title does have a hyphen (-) between 'mind' and 'set' which sure must have intrigued the reader I believe. The hyphen separating the word 'mind-set' is there just to bring a tennis reference. The phrase 'set and match' is commonly used in racket sports and this is a tribute to my love for tennis.

As someone whose formula for success has mindset as a key component, I feel I'm in the best possible situation to highlight its importance. I hear a lot of people talk about the importance of mindset and I agree with most of them. 

Throughout my educational life, I've always had the mindset of

'I can do this, no pressure'

and this has always worked for me. In all the exams I had taken - except my CS Executive exams - I was the calmest and the most confident person because of this mindset. No pressure, no nervousness. This was my mantra and state of mind for all exams prior to CS Executive. But Executive was a different beast. It  just didn't feel like I was going through my gears even a month prior to the start of the exams. It felt like a leisurely stroll in the park than - taking life easy, with no sense of urgency.

This definitely reflected in the way I approached the exams as well. I was terrified, low on confidence, and was even questioning my decision to write the exams. The first exam was JIGL. I went in with no hopes but to my surprise I did reasonably well. However, the little confidence I had built up was shattered in the next exam, CMSL. The next two exams also didn't go as planned but I didn't give up. I was mentally ready for the fight even though the exams were very difficult. I hadn't even considered the next attempt before starting these exams. It just felt like a glider gliding through the mountains - no checkpoints, no control.

After the four exams, I had a one day break before the next three exams and suddenly I found myself some breathing space. And this was the final nail in the coffin. Returning back after the ECIPL exam, my mind had already started planning for the June attempt with me creating spreadsheets, timetables and charting out my journey ahead. 

It felt like I had turned myself off to hit the reset button. I didn't study at all for the rest of the exams instead I binge-watched a lot of content. I remember wasting my time scrolling reels in the exam hall before the commencement of these exams while being surrounded by people who were rushing through books one after another.

All these things perfectly reflected in my final marksheet. I wasn't expecting myself to clear and had already started for the next attempt when the results were out. I had passed all the subjects but there was a twist. In the first four exams, I had scored above 55 but the next three I struggled to get past 47. At that moment, the only thing I cared about were the two 'PASS' remarks.

Later, when I eventually sat down to analyse my results, one thing struck me. What if I hadn't given up before the last three exams? What if I had pushed myself through? Maybe an AIR was indeed possible. I wasn't very far off the AIR criteria in terms of the marks but in terms of the mindset, I was far off.

Looking back, I feel that was among the worst decisions I ever made. To give up in the middle of an active fight, to give up on my ideology. It was difficult. 

Coming back to the tennis reference, I feel that tennis as a racket sport is more comparable to life as the situations are similar. In this case, an apt comparison would be the French Open 2025 Final between Alcaraz and Sinner. Sinner hadn't dropped a set prior to the Final and Alcaraz had dropped a few like I hadn't seen the side of failure. But Alcaraz despite being not in the best of forms had troubled Sinner in the past and a good match up against him just like I had somehow covered all those difficult moments in life to come up top. Carlos just found a way to win against Janik Sinner. The Final started and Sinner expectedly or unexpectedly was dominating Alcaraz and had 3 Championship points and needed just one more to win. Yes! He was close like how I was to failure after the initial exams. But Carlos just found a way to beat him in a 5-set thriller like how I despite giving up mentally appeared for the remaining exams and cleared them. 

Have you ever felt the urge to give up in the middle of something? I'd love to hear from my readers about their experiences and mindsets. Hoping for a few comments regarding the same. 

Here's a tagline before I leave: It’s not the match point. It’s the mind-set.

Wishing everybody good luck and a great time ahead. Thank You! ❤️