Any life event that causes us stress can have a significant impact on our ability to thrive and succeed at work and home. Having a strong understanding of resilience and calling upon tried and tested management techniques would undoubtedly help us withstand said challenges.
QuickFee recently had the pleasure of co-sponsoring a virtual event with Australian cricketing legend, co-founder and President of the McGrath Foundation – Glenn McGrath. Glenn’s easy-going nature and naturally positive mindset have helped establish his ability to maintain composure and positivity in times of adversity and endure challenges that may have set the rest of us back.
Glenn’s story started growing up in the small town of Narromine in Country NSW, playing different sports and building the foundations of his cricketing career. Through his sporting highs and lows, the personal tragedy of losing his wife Jane and ultimately founding the McGrath foundation, Glenn had to learn to overcome adversity and manage pressure.
So how does one of the greatest cricketers of all time maintain resilience and handle the pressure?
Glenn has developed and refined four fundamental principles which he relies upon to get through life’s challenges and build his resilience.
Self-belief
“What really matters is how we feel about ourselves and what we allow to affect/impact us. It comes from knowing yourself, having self-belief, plus planning and preparing as well as you can”, said Glenn McGrath. Self-belief and the ability to handle pressure needs comes from within. So putting yourself out there and ‘having a go’ is the best way to build up your belief in yourself and your abilities.
When stressful situations presented in his sporting career, Glenn focused on the process and concentrated on getting the next thing done to the best of his ability. According to Glenn, when you focus on one thing at a time, you don’t feel the pressure of the whole situation weighing on you. Getting through these challenging situations teaches us that we can endure and trust in our abilities.
It is how you pick yourself up and lean on the support from others that helps you get the perspective you need.
Be prepared
This one goes two ways; be prepared as much as you can for everything you do and be prepared to work hard when you do it!
Whether it is throughout his 14-year cricketing career or in his ongoing philanthropic work at the McGrath Foundation, Glenn always applies his solid work ethic and works hard to achieve the best outcome. So when you put in the time and effort to prepare for something – from a T20 match to a board meeting – don’t let yourself down by giving less than 100% on the day.
Preparation won’t necessarily prevent things from going wrong, but it does mean that when you have planned for what you know is coming, you will have more capacity to deal with the unexpected.
You need to be ready to make mistakes too! Accepting that mistakes have happened and learning from them will help you build up your resilience over the longer term and prepare you for the next time you encounter a similar situation.
Your plan may not always work out in your favour, but you make things a little easier on yourself by taking control of what you can. Glenn says that “the moment we start resting on our laurels and give that control away, everything starts getting that little bit harder”.
Never be satisfied
Glenn might be the only one of us who took a miracle catch at the Adelaide Oval in 2002 – but he does know that even when things go as right as they did that day, there is always room to improve.
The good times will always be there to look fondly back on and think about what worked in our favour, but what about when things don’t go well? In those times, Glenn says that we should use them as motivation and analyse why they happened, whether we can control it, and then work on improving next time. Give yourself time to slow down and collect your thoughts so that they don’t control your emotions.
On the pitch when things went wrong Glenn says, “I would tell myself that’s gone, no matter what I do I can’t change it and tried to focus on the next ball and bowl it as well as I could”. So, when things are beyond your control, don’t waste your mental energy trying to change them – take what you can from it and use it next time. The same rule applies to the past – no matter what you do, you can’t change what has happened, so try to focus on the next thing. When we continue to learn from our experiences, we can tap into this reservoir of experience the next time we encounter a similar situation.
Have fun
Even when Glenn was batting – which he freely admits was not his strongest aspect of the game – he says he still tried to have fun. If he got taken out for a duck that didn’t stop him giving it his best and enjoying the challenge of working with the guy at the other end of the pitch.
There is something to be said about living very much in the moment and seeing the best in every situation. A very clear positive mindset resonated from everything Glenn talked about in his chat with us. If his story alone was not inspiring enough, his approach to life, in general, is certainly admirable. He believes that you should have fun and enjoy every minute you have, and it’s such a simple sentiment but sometimes one that we overlook.
On the pitch when things went wrong Glenn says, “I would tell myself that’s gone, no matter what I do I can’t change it and tried to focus on the next ball and bowl it as well as I could”. So, when things are beyond your control, don’t waste your mental energy trying to change them – take what you can from it and use it next time. The same rule applies to the past – no matter what you do, you can’t change what has happened, so try to focus on the next thing. When we continue to learn from our experiences, we can tap into this reservoir of experience the next time we encounter a similar situation.
Whilst the world continues to throw new and interesting challenges at us – whether it’s a pandemic, a personal loss or something as common as a cold – if we have a strong sense of self-belief, work hard and just have fun we will continue to build our reserves of resilience.
