During a Test match I am not a very good sleeper, mainly because

The words of Steve Smith, “During a Test match I am not a very good sleeper, mainly because I am visualising. Everything is positive. Nothing negative,” resound with the discipline of a warrior who lives his battle long before it is fought. He reveals the secret of champions: that victory is first won in the mind. In his restless nights, he rehearses strokes, imagines outcomes, and shapes his spirit so that when dawn comes, he meets the challenge already prepared.

The origin of this wisdom lies in the ancient art of mental rehearsal. From the philosophers who taught that thought molds character, to the soldiers who envisioned triumph before entering the fray, the principle has endured: what the mind sees, the body follows. In cricket, where a Test match stretches for days, requiring patience, focus, and unyielding will, this practice of visualising becomes not merely preparation but survival.

Consider the story of Muhammad Ali, who before his fights declared, “I am the greatest,” long before the world believed him. In the solitude of his mind, he saw himself victorious, throwing punches with precision, standing above his rivals. His visualising was not arrogance but faith in action, aligning his heart and body with the image of triumph. So too does Smith remind us that when the mind dwells on the positive, the body moves with certainty and the soul with confidence.

Smith’s words also warn against the poison of the negative. For doubt is a thief, and fear a chain. If the mind rehearses failure, the body falters before it has begun. But to banish the negative is to walk with freedom, to meet each ball, each trial, with a spirit unburdened by fear. In this way, his sleepless nights are not torment, but the forging of steel.

The lesson here is not for athletes alone. In the struggles of life—be they in labor, in study, in conflict, or in love—the principle holds: what you visualise with faith becomes the seed of your reality. To keep every thought positive is to plant a harvest of resilience and victory.

Let the generations remember: greatness is not born in the moment of applause, but in the silent hours when one dreams of triumph and casts out despair. The sleepless nights of the devoted are not wasted, for they shape the day of glory. And in every Test match—whether on the cricket pitch or in the trials of life—the one who holds only the positive will rise, while the one who yields to the negative will fall.