Little things that inspire others

I am a big fan of football and have been following European and Indian football for quite a long time now. Recently I came across this interview of Indian legend Sunil Chettri who plays for Indian Super League side Bengaluru FC. As of today, he is third on the list of highest active goalscorers in international football, just behind Ronaldo and Messi. I always consider Chettri equivalent to Kohli in terms of fitness and mindset for the game. He is 39 and still willing to do the best for his team and his fitness is top-notch.

In his interview, he was asked about the role and impact of senior players like him on the team’s youngsters. Chettri replied in a very calm manner, saying that in today’s age, social media has taken a toll on things. Indeed, it has somehow come into the way of a player’s concentration. But he doesn’t like to lecture youngsters on anything as he thinks they will get annoyed by his boring pep talk. ‘Arey fir se shuru ho gaya ye buddha’, he said mischievously in a famous Hindi slang. He even admitted he never liked someone lecturing him when he was young. And let’s admit, we all never liked someone taunting and lecturing us at any stage of our lives, which is common human nature.

He emphasized on little things by which a senior player can make an impact on the youngsters. Things like being punctual at training, having proper pre and post-match routines, working hard at training, being a team player first, having good playing ethics, maintaining a good dressing room culture, following a proper diet, working on fitness, etc. When a youngster observes these little things they get motivated and try to mimic those actions. This in turn influences other youngsters in the team as well. You see, how wonderful a role model he has been to his peers.

This made me think that it applies to every field, be it corporate, art, theatre, film industry, sports, etc. One always learns from their seniors by looking at their actions. We can easily be influenced by how our senior counterpart is taking things. We tend to follow them as they are the ones we always look forward to learning the skillset required for the job. It’s not just limited to work life, but also the outside of work life which we tend to follow from them.

In my professional career, I have come across many such senior peers whom I have looked up to and learned so many good aspects of work and life in general. I have learned qualities like being a good team player, good work ethic and etiquette, upskilling at work, growth mindset, etc. The good part was that I was able to recognize some of these qualities from them and tried to implement the same in myself as well. Of course, there were times when I encountered some toxic people as well, but I held myself to never get influenced by such people.

Now, when I look back, I tend to apply the same to myself and try to set an example for my junior peers. And we all must do the same and this cycle must go on and on.