What do you need for tomorrow?

I am following the Olympics live where I can. It is great for us in Malaysia as the time zone works well but it also clashes with the workday. Choices had to be made and for me, it fell into two categories. Sports that I do myself and sports where Malaysia was participating. If my schedule and the timing of these categories matched – I gave myself a treat.

One such treat was Women’s diving. 2 treats, actually. The first was the women’s 3 m springboard diving finals. It was on a Sunday. Nur Dhabitha Sabri, representing Malaysia took part and it was a brilliant way to spend Sunday afternoon. She did so well. She came in fourth. It was an achievement. For me, she made it to the podium. She was resilient with an ever-present smile throughout the event. Gently working her way up the ladder.

The second treat was watching Pandelela Pamg, our sweetheart diver, competing in the 10 m platform diving. She had a brilliant start in the preliminaries, but her performance declined in the remaining 4 dives. She nearly did not make it to the semi-finals. She made it only because a Brazilian diver, a few places ahead of Pandelela, faltered on her last dive and made way for Pandelela. Pandelela was 18th on the list of 18 who qualified from 30 participants to compete in the semi-finals.

The semi-final was a better day for Pandelela. She started strong and remained strong. She was a little nervous in her 3rd and 4th dives but performed well overall to finish in 8th position, comfortably making the shortlist of 12 for the finals.

She had tough competition from the Chinese divers who were diving to perfection. The younger of the 2 Chinese divers even scored a couple of 10s for one of her 5 dives. She was like a diving robot, executing her dives to perfection. A truly awe-inspiring performance. But here’s the thing, the same girl had faltered in a couple of dives in the preliminary round 24 hours before. She scored 10s in one of those dives 24 hours later.

Even the lady who was commentating on TV, who I believe is an ex-diver herself, wondered what the coaches said to the young Chinese diver that led to such a transformation in 24 hours. Her words were, “I would love to know what the coaches said to her yesterday”.

I wanted to know too. The coaches seemed to know what she needed to hear and work on. That applied to Pandelela too. Her performance had significantly improved in 24 hours. So, what changed?

These are peak performance athletes and so much goes into getting them to where they are. The physical, emotional, psychological aspects are all constantly worked on. But even at this level so much can still be worked on in 24 hours. I find this amazing and encouraging. Because it applies to us too. You and I are not Olympic athletes, but I believe we can ‘transform’ in 24 hours.

But it requires clarity of what we NEED to transform. Let’s think this through together. Bear with me as I introduce a theory.

We are constantly renewing in every moment of every day. At a cellular level, this is a fact. Cells die and new ones are created. But we are renewing at the cerebral (thinking, emotional and psychological) level too.

Your day today started with you inheriting your yesterday. If your yesterday went well, then you possibly feel compelled to accept most of yesterday into your today. A gift to you from yesterday. But if your yesterday wasn’t that great, you are not obligated to accept that part into today. Neither do you have to justify, defend, or regret it. You have moved on, making today an evolution of yesterday. But it requires making deliberate choices on your part. This is active, conscious participation. Change.

With me so far?

What you then choose to put into your today is where transformation lies. The power of now as Ekhart Tolle says. Just like the divers (and coaches) who assessed their past (24 hour) performance then brought along only what worked and added to it, in the present moment, to transform their dives.

I realise I simplify a complex topic here. Or rather the theory is simple but the application is not so. But I believe that power lies in the simplicity of concepts. We fall off the wagon when we get complicated. You are a different person today than your 20-year-old self. And the difference or evolution is based on what you chose (or not) to bring along and what you chose (or not) to leave behind.

My question to you now is, what do you need for tomorrow - what do you need today to achieve what you want tomorrow?

More in next week’s article. In the meantime, do reflect on the question and have a great week ahead.

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