Digging Deep

Yesterday the England Rugby squad, aided by Jonny Wilkinson's boot dug deep within themselves and beat the Aussies. Later it was the turn of the French to get a bit of desire and determination and beat New Zealand. I have no idea on the odds that the bookies would have given for both the Aussies and All Blacks to go out at this stage and against such opposition. Both England and France did not have the best start to their Rugby World Cup campaign. England had been within one game of having the worst defence ever of a WorldCup. No longer.
As one of the players said -- no one outside the thirty players in the England's dressing room may have thought they had a prayer, BUT the thirty inside the dressing did. They were convinced of it and went out and played. Played and won.
Self belief is truly important. Self belief means you can put the last match behind and concentrate on the next one. Self belief means that you look forward and do not keep going over past mistakes. It does not mean that you do not try to learn from your mistakes, simply that you do not let those mistakes haunt you. You have to make your job/work as strong as posisble so that you withstand your opponents.
Self-belief is the determination part of my mantra. In order to succeed as a writer, I need to have desire, determination, discipline, dedication and perseverance. It is what makes luck, just as England and France made their luck on the rugby pitch.
Today it is the turn of South Africa v Fiji and Argentina v Scotland. And it will be interesting to see which team digs deep and preseveres. The smart money is on South Africa and Argentina. But then yesterday showed that in rugby, sometimes, the smart money is wrong.