The SquizLogKeith Pitty takes a squiz at the world. |
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The SquizLogKeith Pitty takes a squiz at the world. |
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OK, I admit it. With one day remaining, the NSW cricket team has an extremely slender chance of scoring the 568 runs they need to win the Pura Cup final.
The fat lady is warming up. If the unthinkable happens tomorrow and NSW wins... no, I'll stop there. It's not going to happen.
Well done, Tasmania.
Apparently Twitter is all the rage. No thanks! Why do I need yet another Internet-based distraction? Particularly one that would frequently interrupt the flow of my work activities.
Bob Woolmer, the former English Test player who subsequently coached South Africa and Pakistan, has tragically died in the aftermath of Pakistan's shock loss to Ireland.
Along with the many tributes to Woolmer from cricketing colleagues, Cricinfo lauded his coaching (my emphasis):
"Woolmer was creative and adventurous. But his coaching was based on a simple premise: the more enjoyable he could make the game, the better his players would respond. No two fielding practices were alike when Woolmer was in charge."
That's wonderful praise that should inspire cricket coaches the world over. After all, sport is supposed to be fun.
It's started! Well, the 2007 Cricket World Cup has actually been going since Tuesday but the wins by Bangladesh and Ireland over India and Pakistan respectively have generated some excitement following some very one-sided contests. You have to love it when the underdog gets up!
Serendipity perhaps? Several times recently I have had cause to focus on the psychological concept of flow. What is 'flow', you may ask? I'll explain as I relate these coincidences.
A few weeks ago my Dad, a semi-retired psychologist, sent a letter to help my son in his sporting endeavours. Dad related the sporting experience of 'being in the zone' to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's work, in particular his book "Living Well", which uses the metaphor of 'flow'. He notes that many people have used this metaphor to "describe the sense of effortless action they feel in moments that stand out as being the best in their lives". Dad drew attention to the following passage:
"When goals are clear, feedback is relevant, and challenges and skills are in balance, attention becomes ordered and fully invested. Because of the total demand on psychic energy, a person in flow is completely focused. There is no space in consciousness for distracting thoughts, irrelevant feelings. Self-consciousness disappears, yet one feels stronger that usual. The sense of time is distorted: hours seem to pass by in minutes. When a person's entire being is stretched in the full functioning of body and mind, whatever one does becomes worth doing for its own sake; living becomes its own justification. In the harmonious focusing of physical and psychic energy, life finally comes into its own."A few days later my father asked me whether I'd read Ross Gittins' article in the Sydney Morning Herald about job satisfaction and flow. I hadn't but looked it up because I have a high regard for the way Gittins appears to look outside the square when researching material for his columns. This time he was focusing on what psychologist Martin Seligman has to say about flow in the context of work. The guts of the article centred on the three distinct kinds of work that psychologists have identified: a job, a career and a calling. Seligman argues that "when your work is a calling you more frequently experience a psychological state known as flow." The article went on to conclude that "Seligman's recipe for finding your calling and getting more flow is to identify your signature strengths, choose work that lets you use them every day and recraft your present work to use your signature strengths." Dad observed that perhaps Seligman could have acknowledged Csikszentmihalyi's ground-breaking work on flow.
All of this had me curious. In my sporting life I have on occasions - too infrequent for my liking - experienced the exhilaration of being 'in the zone'. Steve Waugh has written that he was in "that special place called the zone" as he breezed towards his unforgettable last ball of the day hundred against England in 2003. In my professional life I know I have on many occasions experienced the feeling of flow when I have been immersed in a programming activity.
The real coincidence of this story occurred when I was checking my RSS feeds and noticed this brief blog entry by Esther Derby, leading back to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. This article that Esther linked to appears to be an excerpt from Csikszentmihalyi's book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience". It's well worth a read.
So where does that leave me? With two thoughts. Firstly that it is well worth trying to create the conditions to experience flow more often. And secondly that Csikszentmihalyi is on to something. I might have to add his books to the growing list that I'd like to read one day.
"When it all seems too hard at least there's a cup of Earl Grey Tea", I said to one of my colleagues in the office the other day. Free Twinings Earl Grey tea, which my employer provides, may not be a big-ticket item in terms of fringe benefits but it is most welcome, nonetheless.
What of Johann Sebastian Bach? On my commute home on the train in the evenings, I often set my iPod to play the incomparable music of JS Bach. I find that his wonderful compositions help to soothe my mind after a mentally taxing day.
So there you have it. Earl Grey Tea and JS Bach. For me, two civilised comforts.
So the NSW Blues cricket team took their collective eye off the ball for a couple of hours and were dismissed for 53, their lowest score ever in four day domestic cricket.
No matter, all is not lost. After two days they may still trail Tasmania by 168 runs but their skipper Dom Thornely, after falling to Hilfenhaus first ball in the first innings, is leading the fightback as NSW follow on. He and Peter Forrest, the Hawkesbury player who finds himself batting at number three in his second game for NSW, have put on 124 so far for the third wicket. All they have to do is build on their start and make it a huge partnership, thereby setting up the NSW bowlers with enough runs to defend so that they can bowl Tasmania out in the second innings.
Sound unlikely? Maybe. But who would have predicted a last wicket stand of 219 between Thornely and Stuart MacGill back in November 2004? The Blues are still in the running for the Pura Cup in 2006/07. As they say in sport, it's not over until the fat lady sings.
Short note to self. To flush the cache on OS X, use the command lookupd -flushcache.
It promised to be fun. A mate had enticed me into a game of cricket for my local club. Five of us oldies in the team. I had advised him that I would go into intensive training to prepare.
Anyway, it was fun... while it lasted.
Last time I agreed to play a one-off game of cricket, I tore my calf muscle four overs into the game. This time? Well, you can see the result. Finger broken and in a splint. Oh, and it was dislocated too. But that's not the worst of it - I dropped the catch in the process! Luckily the boys went on to win the game and have a few laughs at my expense in the pub afterwards (whilst I was still at the hospital).
I guess I'm a slow learner. I should stay retired and stick to the golf course.
Anyway, if any of the boys are reading this and want to know how my finger is, here's the answer!
Is it any wonder that the Australian electorate is often cynical about politicians?
Recently John Howard decided to attack Kevin Rudd for the sin of once associating with the disgraced former WA premier Brian Burke. Then one of Howard's own ministers, Ian Campbell, had to fall on his sword because apparently he had once committed the same offence. Campbell's resignation was not politically motivated, we were assured. The trouble is, it turns out that Senator David Johnston, promoted to the frontbench to fill the vacancy, also has associations with Burke through owning shares in a company that employs Burke. Where will it end, Mr PM?
Senator Andrew Bartlett, of the Australian Democrats, has an amusing take on this cynical episode that does, however, include an impassioned plea in his penultimate paragraph:
I live in hope that one day, we will see passionate public debate and frenzied media coverage about policies and issues that actually affect the public, instead of shallow talking points, manufactured division, deliberately orchestrated controversies and cartoonish character assessments.
I concur. My hope is that the majority of Australians will see through this gutter politics and cast their vote in this year's federal election based on informed knowledge of candidates' policies.
Then again, pigs might fly.
Have you ever been involved in a retrospective (aka "Post Implementation Review") that turned sour or at least fell flat without resulting in any benefits? I know I have.
I think the approach presented Diane Larsen's article, An Appreciative Retrospective, is well worth considering. It is based on the idea of looking for the best in people rather than emphasizing what went wrong.
In my humble opinion, applying this kind of thinking is more likely to bear fruit.
Spare a thought for Peter Forrest who is making his first class debut for NSW. Whilst NSW dominated the first day's play against Queensland with a score of 2 for 402 in which Jaques, Katich and Thornely all made centuries, Forrest sat with the pads on for hours watching his teammates carve up the Bulls' attack.
Meanwhile, Tasmania have made an even better start in their fixture against South Australia, claiming first innings points on day one. And, in the tightest Pura Cup competition in years, Victoria fought back well after Justin Langer made yet another century for Western Australia.
It is going to be a fascinating couple of weeks for Australian cricket tragics such as myself. As a NSW supporter, I hope Forrest gets a good night's sleep and I wish him and NSW well for the remainder of the season.