The Secret to Lasting Consistency

hi everyone i’m nicole david and i’m a

former world squash champion and i’ve

represented malaysia for more than 20

years

i’m really excited to be here sharing on

this tedx sunway university session with

all of you

today i’ll be talking about the secret

to lasting consistency

many have asked me about how i could

sustain at the top of my game for such a

long time

usually questions like how did you do it

what kept you motivated to keep on

winning or

how do you handle it all or the pressure

to be at world number one

during your career well now that i’m

retired

from playing squash professionally i

could actually reflect

on my career and have more time to

understand it better myself

so i’d like to share with all of you the

secret to my success

but before i go into it let me tell you

a little bit more about my story

i was born in penang in 1983 and i’m the

youngest of three girls

in the family my dad desmond

was a civil engineer but he was also a

sports person himself

and used to play football for malaysia

and hockey and athletics for penang

state

i’m pretty sure the sports genes came

from him and also the competitive age

too

my mom ann marie was an english art and

geography teacher in a chinese boys

school

she was super patient to put up with the

boys for over 20 years

but she definitely needed more patience

to put up with me

the most hyper kid you can possibly meet

and all i wanted to do is run around

everywhere

and climb up things if i see an

opportunity

so when i was five years old the first

public school center was built

in penang by my dad’s friend at the time

i was way too small to play squash

because the record was far too big

for me so my sisters had lessons first

while i followed them and sat outside

the court watching in

the minute i saw them playing the game

in their first lesson

i was so intrigued by the sport and i

made a point to ask my dad straight away

to sign me in too somehow

he managed to get me an old wooden

racquet cut it into half

and hand made it specially for me so i

could join in the lessons with my

sisters

the first time i stepped foot on the

squash court

and started hitting the ball with my

special racquet

i just loved every moment of it and i

fell in love with squash from then on

i was dreaming about squash i would wait

for my school day to be over to play

squash

and i just played squash all day every

day

and before you know it i got better and

better at it

i was selected to join the national team

at 11 years old

i started to improve a lot in

tournaments nationally and

internationally but eventually the

results came

when i was 14 years old i had a

breakthrough

and i won my first asian senior title

it was an open age group event so i was

playing opponents that were twice my age

and even still managed to beat them i

was so thrilled

to win that title that it spurred me on

to train harder

and push myself more a year later

i won my first world junior title and at

the time

i was the first ever female athlete in

malaysia

to have ever won a world title so i was

really proud of that achievement

from then on i continued to work harder

and two years later i won my second

world junior title

in my hometown penang it was such an

amazing experience to win that title at

home

in front of my family my friends and the

malaysian supporters all around

after that win it gave me more reason to

make my

decision to become a professional squash

player after that

i also had my mindset to be world number

one

and being world champion in a seniors

one day

when i was 17 years old straight after

high school

i went out and played the puerto r i had

a year on tour

and i did really well to break into the

top 16 in the world within one year

however i noticed i needed to do more to

play against the top players and as they

were very experienced

i knew very quickly what to do to beat

me

so a year later i decided to leave

malaysia and move to amsterdam

to work with my professional coach

deserving

i wanted to train with the best to be

the best i can be

she knew what it takes to compete with

the top women on tour

i have to say this is the best decision

i

ever made in my squash career

she told me the first thing when i

started training with her

was that it would take time and lots of

patience

to make these changes but i was willing

to commit to it

basically i had to change my approach to

training completely

we corrected my technique made my

movement more efficient

learned better tactics tactics to match

up to the top pros

get stronger physically and mentally too

it was certainly a process that was not

easy at all

but i kept to it without missing a day

of training

i had many many tough moments in the

process

but i got through those obstacles and

came out reaching my goal

eventually i became world number one

and world champion all by the age of 22.

also from then on i went on to win eight

world titles and sustained

world number one for nine years

consecutively

and it’s a record in squash history

never in my wildest dreams would i have

ever imagined

achieving this in my entire life

so welcome to the moment of truth

what is the secret to lasting

consistency

well the secret to my success

is improvement i have always wanted to

keep improving myself

and making sure i continue to learn and

grow in every possible way

here is the actual meaning of what

improvement means

and i found it from the dictionary here

it says

the process of making something better

or off

getting better even when i got to world

number one

i knew there were areas i needed to work

on to get better

and at the same time i never thought to

myself that

this is it i’m set now also i didn’t

want to have

any areas where my opponent could attack

me or find any form of weaknesses

when i was competing so i was constantly

making sure i got better in

all aspects of my game so i had to

create a solid

support team around me that was focused

on their roles

to help me improve and get better while

refining my game

at every step of the way i had my coach

my sports physiotherapist my sports

psychologist

and the sports institute to set up my

training schedule

and my programs with my physical

trainers

it was all about improving on the small

details and by doing so

i could continue to get better and stay

on top of the pack

with the rest of the players on tour

throughout my time

at world number one and my entire career

i never

once felt that i was entitled to

anything in my life

i’ll say this again i never once felt

that i was entitled to anything

in my life one of the key things to

remember when you want to reach your

goals

and improve yourself is to never ever

feel

comfortable if you have something set

that you’re wanting to go for you can’t

get comfortable

it is very easy to just settle but if i

fell in this trap

i would be starting to make excuses that

will not help me improve

or get better in any way it just doesn’t

work

so if you want to go somewhere and do

something better in your life

to reach your goals if you get

comfortable

you won’t go anywhere basically

you’ll have you stay put and not move

further to pursue anything more

for yourself one of the biggest things

to

keeping you on track is to have a strong

mindset

which i call the strongest mindset

as an athlete we work on our minds a lot

and it certainly applies to everyone on

how to take

on their daily lives this strongest

mindset is what we practice as an

athlete

so i’d just like to share the six points

that makes a strongest mindset

number one focus on the details

i mentioned before to focus on the small

details to improve yourself

my coach told me to make these small

goals and if i could reach them

then i’ll only get better to reach the

bigger bigger goal

so i would say to work on the small

details and when you work on them

it gets gets you to where you want to go

number two have a vision

as you heard from my story i always had

a vision in mind

and that was to be world number one and

world champion

i went to amsterdam with that in mind

but it doesn’t mean i knew what i

would be doing just knowing what i could

see

or visualize it in my mind helped me to

prepare and plan

myself towards it somehow if you can’t

see

it you can’t reach it number three

look around you competition is

everywhere

and it’s it is the best thing i honestly

learned so much from my opponents

throughout my career

if it wasn’t for my competitors pushing

me to get better

i wouldn’t be where i am today so don’t

fear competition

embrace it and learn from those around

you

number four be willing to do it a

million times

until you get it right i feel that we

don’t give ourselves a chance to even

try things

before we even start or even

want to get through things we just quit

i had to change a lot of things when i

moved to amsterdam and i had to keep

doing

everything a million times till i got it

right and

kept to the plan if you have a plan

stick to it and be willing to work hard

at it

if you want it to work for you number

five

listen to others even if you don’t want

to hear it

i had moments at tournaments when i had

a really bad match

and the day after i had to go through

what happened with my coach

she would be asking me questions and we

will be going through what went wrong to

find out how we can overcome it if it

happens again

i hated the fact that i needed to listen

to it

but it was the only way i could learn

better about myself

the best last best learnings we

were when i lost and that the le that i

learned the most

so be open to listen to others because

it’s the most important thing to do

number six don’t think you know it all

it all it also comes with being open to

listening

if you think you know everything you

won’t take anyone’s opinions

opinions and advice we can be at any

level

in what we do but there is always space

to learn without putting anyone down

we are not the only ones that know

things others do as well

so be willing to let your guard down and

not feel threatened if

and others have an opinion to share

all these that i’ve shared with you is

important to build the strongest mindset

this worked for me but you can also try

and practice it

out yourself as it applies to everyone

another thing that has made me the

person i am today

is to be humble the more successful you

are

the more successful you are the most

humble you should be

my mom was always an example to us

growing up

she was the best to everyone and would

show lots of gratitude with the people

she is around

when i was competing she would tell me

that it doesn’t matter whether you win

or lose

as long as you are a good person that’s

all that matters

i carry this with me through all

throughout my career until now

and i feel this is the best thing to

have in life

the way we treat others is how we will

be treated back in written

i like to finish with a saying that i

always share

and that is being world number one you

have to gain it

every day you have to make an effort

each day in whatever you do to become a

better

friend boss teacher or student

and make every day count don’t take

anything for granted

and make the most of each day of your

life

thank you very much for your time and i

hope you enjoyed

my sharing today take care bye