Mentally, the only players who survive in the pros are the ones able to manage all their responsibilities. Everybody struggles in different ways.
You can train your mental strength just like you train your body. If your body looks fit or ripped, it looks strong, and you can flex your muscles. So, physically, you have a certain strength. Mentally, it’s the same thing. You can train your psychological strength.
It’s mentally draining to be on 100% of the time on both ends of the floor, especially when you’re the team’s undisputed shot creator.
Mentally, I need the hard work behind me. That’s what gives me confidence.
I may not be the most physically tough player, but I think mentally I’m right up there.
When Test cricket is good, it’s amazing, the best, even if it is more taxing on the body and is a lot more mentally taxing.
You can be as good as you can be behind the wheel physically, but you’ve also got to be there mentally.
Mental health and physical health are one in the same for me – they go hand in hand. If you aren’t physically healthy, you won’t be mentally healthy either – and vice versa. The mind and body is connected and when one is off, the other suffers as well.
There are lots of mentally very tough players that I have played against and with.
I try to take things that challenge me either physically or mentally, or I have to learn a new skill.
Mentally, I’m really strong, but for maybe the first time in my life, I cried about my career because I thought it was over. When you’ve been out for a year, and you think it’s over, you think completely differently after that. I was just looking on TV, and I wasn’t able to train, and in the meantime, I had a son.
In hindsight, my darkest time came when I was an idol trainee. My future was uncertain and I always had to ask myself, ‘Will I be able to debut?’ It was physically and mentally exhausting sometimes.
Coaches like Alan Stubbs were quite hard on me but that helped a lot. It was the best thing that could have happened. It really hardened me up physically and mentally.
I like to take the floor apart mentally. I like to visualize an opponent going for you.
I would love to play roles that continue to challenge and push me in different directions – emotionally, mentally, and physically as well.
I beat the bullies up. I got suspended a lot for beating up kids in our schools that were bullying other, sometimes mentally handicapped kids.
‘Wicked’ is so hard-core, physically and mentally, for the whole three hours, that doing that show for two years has pretty much prepared me for anything.
You never know where cricket can take you in two weeks, two months or a year. You never know what that one of game will do, cricket wise or mentally. Anything is possible.
Parents are the most likely to be victims of the violence of their mentally ill children.
When I went to Australia on the India A tour in 2014, I played on flat pitches against batsmen, some of whom were Test players. That experience taught me a lot, as I also was playing with a lot of Test players in our side as well, and I learned about being mentally tough.
I went through an awkward phase with my body and was often ragged for being too thin. I didn’t understand then why people were being so unkind, but I used it to make myself mentally stronger.
Mentally, I am very strong; physically I am very strong. I think that keeps me going. That keeps me strong all the time.
To play at Real Madrid, it is not enough to just have football quality. You must be mentally strong.
It was a relief to get dropped which is sad in a way because you never want to miss a game. But I was not performing and mentally I got to a stage where I was not concentrating and did not want to be there. I was not enjoying walking out there and feeling like I didn’t know where the next run was coming from.
But at least if you are with your kid in a playground, be there mentally as well as physically, even for 20 minutes. Focus means everything to a child.
I don’t put much pressure on myself, because I’m strong mentally.
I’ve been doing a lot of yoga because it really centres me – mentally as well as physically. It’s just an hour of my day that’s always positive, and I always come out in a better mood.
You could be the best lyricist or rapper or songwriter, if you ain’t mentally prepared to put in the work, it’s a waste of time.
