Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The Last Moments Matter


When I play the online word games of ‘Scrambled’ and ‘Word Hero’ on my android phone, I notice that I can squeeze out up to three words in the last five seconds. What leads to these last ‘bursts of fire’? How do I manage to wring out words at whirlwind speed at the eleventh hour?

Perhaps it is the adrenaline pumping, as I compete against the timeline. Being an endurance athlete, I am familiar with working against the clock when I aim for personal best (PB) timing. The watch gives you a sense of your timing, speediness and ability to work within a self-created crisis. It is like our ability to sprint over the finishing-line despite being fatigued or cramped.

It could also be attributed it to my sense of competitiveness. Not so much against a friend, or an unknown adversary – more about beating myself against a benchmarked score. The limits determine your limitation. Either you believe you can beat the score by associating words from the random assortment of alphabets. Sometimes, it takes us almost the duration of the game to realize new words. The confusion makes way for clarity.

Leadership Lessons: How often do you challenge yourself against the clock? How much can you squeeze out of your packets of time? What was the most that you produced within a short period of time? How did it feel to accomplish a lot more than you imagined?

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