Over the last year or
two, the name Yuvraj Singh has become synonyms with many impact words like-
Victory, Comeback, Glory, Perseverance, Hard work, Cancer survivor and
many more. The last one epitomizes his journey in the past one and a half year
or so. His story seems almost surreal- within a month of being the Player of
the Tournament for 2011 Cricket World cup, he got detected with Cancerous tumor
and within a year of that he was back in the team playing demanding
International Cricket. It is a story that reflects life at its best- nothing is
certain, when you are at the zenith of your achievements in life, bad times
would be queuing up and when you are bogged down by despair, the good times
will be round the corner. He obviously had luck by his side in getting all the
support and best possible treatment for cancer but looking at a long list of
high profile people who lost their battles with cancer, one can only say that
one needs more than just vanilla luck to surpass the deadly cancerous
situation. While things like getting the treatment started timely is important
but more than anything Cancer survivorship is about exhibiting a Strong
mind and a steely human will to live despite odds. I will correct myself here
in saying that "Cancer Survivor" is one of the phrases that better define
Yuvraj Singh, he actually did much more than "just" Surviving cancer.
Within months after his cancer treatment, he went through the hard pain of
training, committed himself to domestic Cricket and was selected to play for
India and even did well on his return the very same year. What he did was mind
boggling and got me looking for parallels of this achievement in history. I
would be scared to name a certain Lance Armstrong, the disgraced cyclist now.
Not so long ago I heard the story of Anna Bretan from California. Not a
known household name but what she did was out of this world. Within 6 weeks of
delivering a baby girl, Anna participated in Oakland Marathon and won with the
timing of 2:57:33 (A Full marathon, mind you is 42.1 Km). Arguably, Yuvraj went
through more stress on mind and body than a pregnant person but it is the
stories like these that helps one not lose faith in life and to deal with
obstacles heads on. These stories helps one believe that no matter
how much down are you, tomorrow can indeed be better than today.
Yuvraj Singh's
Handwriting sample:
Story behind Yuvraj's
handwriting sample:
I recently got to read
the latest book by Yuvraj- The
Test of My Life from Cricket to Cancer and Back. This book is a biography of
sorts as it looks at his life at various levels but with a focus on his fight
with Cancer. The initial pages of this book had a message with Yuvraj's
handwriting. As much as I found the book interesting, I was excited to see his
handwriting that helped me analyze his personality.
What personality
traits helped Yuvraj Singh's comeback to life ?
As a part of what is written
in the next few paragraphs, the focus is on a few strong traits that helped
Yuvraj stage an almost impossible comeback to life and Cricket. (A complete
analysis of his personality through the handwriting sample would be more
elaborate). Here we go-
Stubbornness:
Wikipedia defines
Stubbornness as-
Stubborn, is a
description of someone who is seen by others to steadfastly refuse to change
their opinions, despite being presented with what others consider are good
reasons to do so.
A Stubborn person thinks
he is always right and takes a stand. He may not even look at the other side
and weigh other possibilities.
His handwriting clearly
shows visible signs of Stubbornness in his personality. In fact, In his
biography, he even mentions himself as Stubborn. An except below-
“I know i am a dheet. Not easy to translate into English but it
means i am a kind of person who can make the stubborn people of the world look
flexible and obliging.”
By its definition, it
may give one an impression that Stubbornness is a negative personality
trait. In my experience, it is often not all that right to classify human traits
as good or bad because a given trait could be good or bad depending upon the
context or the lens we choose to see them in.
At the early stages of
detection of Cancer, Yuvraj was Stubborn to accept that he had a tumor that
could be life threatening (even on insistence of his Doctors). Without
realizing the enormity of what was growing inside him, he instead played the
Test series as he didn’t want to lose an opportunity to seal his
spot.
And later during his
fight with cancer, it was his stubborn personality that refused to bog down to
Cancer. No matter how miserable Chemotherapy made his outer
body and the chemicals weakened his brain, it was his stubbornness to not give up
to Cancer that made him be mentally prepared against the biggest opposition
that he had faced in his life. Stubborn people are braced to their own ideas
and once their mind is made up, that how they intend to keep it.
Defiance:
A Defiant person is
the one who resists other's authority. This trait is often seen as resentment
at being told what to do and as rebellion. The defiant person doesn’t like to
be "managed" and is always alert for any sign of unjust authority.
Yuvraj’s handwriting
shows presence of Defiance personality trait as well.
There is an
interesting story in Yuvraj's biography about the days when he started
practicing Cricket. He was practicing at a Club with his Dad in his early days
and Navjot Singh Sidhu happened to be in the same club. His father (a former
Test Cricketer himself) requested Sidhu to assess his son playing.
Sidhu on seeing him
practice had said that Yuvraj was not made for Cricket and showed no promise.
His Dad on hearing had apparently
said to Yuvraj-
Apna basta utha aur ghar
chal. Ab mein dekhta hoon ki tu cricket kaise nahi khelta (Pack your stuff, we
are going home. I'll see how you don't play Cricket.).
He had the origins of
Defiance traits arguably from this incident but inherently in his overall
upbringing. This again like stubbornness can be seen as a negative trait but
this is also a trait needed in some Leadership situations.
In his treatment of Cancer,
he remained Defiant in his mind that he won let Cancer boss over him
and even though he went through unexplainable pain and discomfort, he came
back.
There is an interesting
anecdote in his biography that speaks about Defiance in his personality. During
his treatment, on one of the better days, one of his friends challenged him
that though he may be good at Cricket, he can never beat him in Table Tennis.
The stage was set and Yuvraj, still weak due to his ongoing treatment lost the
first set of games 3-0. Even though he was physically fading and
vomiting during the game, he asked for another set of games and made sure that
he won 3-0 before he left the table.
Determination:
Determination simply is
Firmness of purpose; resoluteness.
Yuvraj's handwriting
shows the clear traces of Determination in his personality. Determined
people hold on to a positive belief and ingrain that solidly in mind to sail
through the tough times in life. Holding on to positive beliefs makes
one a believer from non-believer.
At the start
of chemotherapy sessions, Dr. Einhorn who treated Yuvraj said-
"After three cycles, you could walk out of here like a man
who never had cancer.”
As Yuvraj points out-
“I remembered what Kapil Dev had said to us in the dressing room
once when he came to speak to us. He said that there is an old adage which is
annoying to hear in good times and wonderful to hear in bad times and it is :
'This too shall pass'.”
Rather than allowing
himself to be fully distraught from the situations, Yuvraj continued to make
himself more determined during the course of treatment and emerged victorious.
It was his determination
that led to him starting his training in just a month after his return to India
post treatment. A few months later, with Yuvraj playing all 3 formats of the
game, was one of the most unbelievable things to have happened around.
I think it will be
just fair and uncontroversial to say that Yuvraj Singh staged the most grand
and difficult comeback in Indian Cricket's history. Media has often labeled him
with incorrect adjectives during his early days but his come back to active life
in recent times is more than a proof that this man is special. He is a hope for
the lesser mortals who tend to give up all so easily on seemingly trivial
things.
Here's wishing more
power to Yuvraj in all his endeavors and especially towards Yowecan (a
foundation to generate awareness and facilitate early Detection of Cancer) and
success with Cricket.
Image Source:
http://myfitnesscare.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/yuvraj-singh.jpg
http://www.lrgiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/stubborn.jpg
http://www.fuelrunning.com/runnernotes/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/11.png
http://healthythoughts.in/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/determination.jpg
