Be Prepared

There is a nice article posted on Cricinfo about how teams go about their preparation before every tournament, every match by former India Test player Aakash Chopra.

Preparation is in essence knowing what your strengths are as a team, the strength of the competition at hand, and how you would go about maximizing your strengths and at the same time minimizing your weaknesses such that you emerge victorious.
It is about gauging an action plan for the event you are about to compete in.

Every team, rather every individual has a different method, a different style in which they prepare for any major event.

Some teams like to be very vociferous before any major event; they come out with strong statements in pre-match press conferences, belittling their opponents; while other teams follow a strict ritualistic preparation schedule and go about the task at hand without any fuss.

Preparation at the individual level is very different from preparing together as a team.

Some individuals like to build some pre-event tempo by connecting with the audience, doing some chest thumping, getting the adrenaline flowing (good example: Champion Sprinter Usain Bolt); while others like to remain with themselves, engrossed in capturing over their own minds before they compete with the others (good example: Champion Pole Vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva).

Be it a sport event, or any other kind of an event like an examination, an interview etc; being prepared helps. Being prepared basically means that one has worked out in their heads how that particular event would pan out, and more importantly, what would their response be to any query/ incident that would come across during the event.

It is said,

Visualize yourself as being victorious, and that itself will contribute to half your victory

Being Prepared is definitely the other half which shall contribute to your victory.