A peek into greatness

In this age of overused adjectives,"he doesnot deserve" lines, a peek into the mind of champions would serve us all better.
Once upon a time,a small boy in downunder used to start his daily training by writing"I will score a hundred in my debut".He got it at Bangalore in his first test under pressure. That fellow is Michael clarke.Suppose if we are to ask him "How are you able to do that?", his answer most probably would be in the lines of"I was able to guard my mind like a dutiful sentry,leaving in things that can only make me better".Greatness is a state that could be understood by anybody who skips his sisters marriage simply because he got a ranji trophy tie(suresh raina) at the age of 16, who jumped from his balcony at the age of 5 simply because his neighbour promised him a bat(virendar sehwag),waking up at 4 and riding his dear friends scooter to attend his regular coaching at the other end of a big city(ashish nehra).The common thread that links all this people is that they are able to compartmentalise the important from the trivial.How are these people able to do that?Did they got superior genes?Did they had powerful masters?These all are questions even seasoned experts might find it difficult to handle.
Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr once told his school going son "if you think you will not captain your school football team,just jump out.Dont waste your time".His son later turned out to be John F Kennedy,thirty fifth president of the united states.In some cases, powerful parentage might help.But,JFK was always brilliant in whatever he did.A girl born in Alabama in 1954 with no great lineage to claim and who mostly grew up in Titusville and heavily discriminated in her younger age was able to become the sixty-sixth Secretary of State(U.S.).The lady is none other than condoleezza Rice.Sometime back TIME magazine did an article on her.I can still remember an interesting line like yesterday,"As an young student rice loved both piano and basketball.She could not practise both before leaving out for school for want of time.what did she do?simple,She woke up at three and attended both the sessions and left for school".she never compromised on her love.You tube videos show Tiger Woods holding a golf club at the age of 3.What is he doing now?I hope you know the answer.Whoever we look and admire or for that matter hate(Harbhajan/Sreesanth), all we need to understand is that he/she woke up on a bone-freezing chilly morning and trained hard to chase their dreams, when all we did was fight with our mom for waking up so early.
My favourite sports columinist Rohit Brijnath once wrote "There is a glory in chasing uncertain dreams.Glory in playing with the realm of uncertainities".All of these champions did excatly that.Kipling's"What if"is a superb remainder, whenever we cross the point of no-return in criticism or appreciation.