The Art of Winning

CHAPTER 1

PURPOSE

When I look back on my career, I keep returning to an image I have of myself as a five-year-old boy, out in the backyard kicking goals. That boy fell in love with rugby properly for the first time during the 1987 Rugby World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, sitting with his dad and watching heroes like John Kirwan scoring a try, Grant Fox directing the play with his kicking and David Kirk holding aloft the Webb Ellis Cup. That five-year-old was straight out in the back garden, replicating Kirwan’s magic with the ball in hand, kicking vital goals and sowing the seeds of a dream that would endure throughout his childhood – to be an All Black.

In 2003 that dream became a reality. I never actually thought it would, growing up in a country town of only 750 people. But at the age of twenty-one, I played my first game for the All Blacks, against Wales in Hamilton, and I came off the pitch at the end of the game having scored twenty points, a dream debut. It would have been easy at that point to simply walk off the pitch, give myself a pat on the back and think, OK, cool, what’s next? But, instead, I was filled with the feeling that this wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough simply to achieve my dream. This experience of being an All Black was so special, so unique that I didn’t want it to stop. I knew as I walked from the pitch, shaking hands with the opposition, congratulating my teammates and soaking up the atmosphere, that it was never going to be enough for me to play a few matches or just a season or two as an All Black. I knew I wanted more. I’d never been more sure of anything.

I didn’t just want to be an All Black. I wanted to strive to be an All Black great.

THE POWER OF PERSONAL PURPOSE

It’s only now that I look back at my childhood and understand that the boy I was then was, without even knowing it, playing with purpose. All of the hours spent ‘practising’, if such a word is even accurate for doing something you love – kicking in the garden until only the fading light or bedtime stopped me, playing age-grade rugby, spending weekends at Southbridge Rugby Club – were all because I loved rugby. But that dream to be an All Black was always there, without me really thinking too much about it, and that purpose subconsciously guided me. As a child, it comes naturally to have a beginner’s mindset, to embrace new challenges and constantly seek growth. I’ve had a lot of great coaches in my time, but during the hours I spent kicking, making adjustments, trying new techniques, making purpose my own kicking tees, it was all pure pleasure, but I was also coaching myself. Improving as a kicker each and every day.

For me, a growth mindset is simply the idea that we believe we are capable of being better than we were yesterday, and that we strive to make that improvement each and every day, so that it becomes habit. It often seems to come naturally to us as children, but as we get older, we need a growth mindset just as much if we’re to constantly evolve and improve. If we’re at all serious about achieving our potential then it’s absolutely vital. But without our childhood innocence, that natural learning curve we’re all on as children, it can be more challenging. We have to approach it in a more conscious, concerted way. So, when I walked off the pitch with that thought, I want to be an All Black great, I needed to also ask myself: OK, so what does an All Black great do?

Through exploring the answer, I was able to create a set of values that would remain consistent throughout my career, even as circumstances and my style of play changed. I decided that an All Black great:

1. Has to play consistently over several years – potentially more than a decade – not just a couple of Tests or seasons.
2. Needs to constantly evolve his game and improve to develop as a player and beat off all challengers.
3. Adheres to world-class standards and works harder than his teammates and opponents.
4. Makes sacrifices in his life to make sure his purpose comes first.

The discovery of this sense of personal purpose was an incredibly liberating and focusing moment for me. It would provide a constant torch for me to follow, a guiding light through which to filter any major decision, setback or distraction in my life. I would come to think of it like swimming in a lane of a pool. Either side of you are the lane markers and along the bottom is the centre line, which would function as my purpose. You might be swimming your heart out but find yourself veering off course without realising, so the lane markers either side of you would remind you that you were heading towards the other lane, and the centre line would bring you back to where you needed to be.

But more than this, my purpose provided a higher calling, something beyond simply winning the next game, playing the best I could in the next Test – it allowed me to strive for greatness. And, as I would discover later, this purpose is what kept me going when life intervened and moved the goalposts in my career – which happens to all of us at some time or another – and my ambitions seemed impossibly far away.

One thing it didn’t allow me to do was cruise. I might wake up one morning, feeling a little sore and tired from the day before, thinking maybe I’d skip my recovery that day. But through asking, What would an All Black great do? I would quickly see that wasn’t an option. Of course, it’s one thing to discover a purpose, but it’s quite another to strive towards it every single day. To do that requires dedication, consistency and vast reserves of self-belief. But first and foremost, it requires patient and meticulous planning.