An eye opening game of Badminton that redefined my take on motivation.
A study was conducted in 1998 at Columbia University by a professor Claudia M Mueller which gives an account of what is popularly called “The Locus Rule.” Although I had come across this study ages ago, little before a week did I realize that it is unerring. Why? Read the first two lines again.
A lot of adroit writers on Medium have already written about this study. So let me share my personal episode. In case of necessity, you can skim through this video that will help you get a hang of it
My shoes squeaked on the court as I dropped my racket in frustration, disappointment, helplessness, inefficiency ; any other related term you tell me, and I’ll nod my head. After 3 years of training and one month of playing almost 6 matches every single day, there I was! On the court, face to face with a crackerjack Badminton player (for convenience, I’ll call it M1). The selections for the upcoming tournament had begun and I was feeling highly strung. “Why is it me?” I did nothing but grumbled at my fate. I come to terms with whatever you have predicted by now. Yes, I was going to lose terribly. Emphasis on terribly. But I couldn’t back off. I’d better play and lose rather than not play at all, I said to myself. “Love-all, play”, the referee commanded. Needless to say, I was defeated. What’s worse?
The score at the end of the game was 21–10. A shameful difference of 11 points.
Hold up, the story doesn’t end here. I was fortunate enough to still get shortlisted, since there was a requirement of a few more players. Four days left before the BIG DAY. We had around 8–10 hours of rigorous practice altogether in these days and that was all the time we could afford to invest. On one of these days, another game awaited the PROFICIENT and the AMATEUR ( for similar purposes, I’ll call it M2). The game began and with no second thoughts, it was the best singles badminton game I have played till date. I patted myself on the back. Had I won? No and Yes.
BEHIND THE CURTAINS
My very and only thought and mindset during M1 was something like this
- She’s unbeatable.
- You’re not even close to her capabilities.
- You’re eliminated already.
- Come prepared for the tournament the next year.
Which means, I had already believed that I was going to lose and worse, lose with a terrible score, like already mentioned. I looked into how good my opponent was and took my skills and strategies for granted. I never even tried to devise a strategy or try to identify her weak points and attack her. I believed she had none, which was again my assumption.
If I come clean with you, nowhere was that my real game. My real game is at least 12 times better than how I had performed during M1. After realizing this, I reworked my weaknesses, analyzed hers and attacked her with those very weaknesses during M2, which I had missed out during M1. She fell into those traps. Yes, the same “crackerjack” player. Albeit I had lost M2 as well, take a look at the scorecard.
21–19. (Any player or viewer would know that this is an extremely close game)
A LITTLE DEEPER
Sounds fair, doesn’t it?
During M2, I used all my skills, played to my strengths and above all believed in my hard work. I bothered less about how strong my opponent is. For a couple of minutes, I forgot (at least tried to) that against me, with raging eyes and confidence body language is a skilled badminton player. This time I wasn’t drowning in the tears of loss, but I was happy that I had given my opponent a good fight, ensured that I am not an easy target. What made the difference was the fact that I had redirected my attention to “MYSELF” from “HER”. Well of course, a game like badminton demands you to be aware of your opponent’s weaknesses and use them against him/her. But that clearly doesn’t tell you to think you’re an underdog, which is exactly what I had done during M1.
And this very thing is proved the by study conducted at Columbia University. If explained briefly this theory, proposed by the psychologist Julian Rotter comes from the idea of the locus of control. It points at the degree to which you believe that you have control over your life and things around you. Unfortunately for me, I realized it after committing a mistake. But I hope that doesn’t happen in your case.
Thanks for your valuable time!
