Virat Kohli birthday: 5 life lessons we can learn from the Indian skipper

Very rarely in life do you come across people who have their lives sorted by the age of 29. It is even rarer to find individuals who can inspire others at that age.

Virat Kohli turned 29 today and unarguably is an inspiration to millions of people in India and across the globe. His larger-than-life personality, prodigious talent and immense dedication have made him one of the biggest sports personalities in the world right now.

Here are five life lessons that we can learn from India's premier batsman:

#5 Take success as a process, not a destination

Virat Kohli: The joy of doing well as a batsman for your country is much more than that little joy of going for a party and enjoying music. It is a completely different high, and I get high by performances. That's what I enjoy now.

One of the major factors behind Kohli's tremendous triumphs over the years has been his hunger to play more, score more and win more.

Never do you witness Kohli coming out for the toss with a slothful and slow walk. In fact, his body language is always a vivid rendition of intent and desire. He looks prepared, perfected, and ready to go.

The Indian skipper owes his success to extreme consistency through the years. His desire to try and take his team over the victory line is apparent in every game that he plays.

This is because he has the uncanny ability to view success in a different light. Like most people, he does not consider it to be the one final goal of his career. In fact, he knows that it comes in bits and pieces, and is spread over years of toil, effort, and exertion.

He teaches every cricket follower in the world to keep at this process of success consistently and add more to it every day. This is an invaluable quality to imbibe, more so in today's fast-paced and impatient world.

#4 Develop relentless, sickening work-ethic

Virat Kohli: Never at any point did I feel like missing a training session. I was very keen on improving as a cricketer and as an international player.

One of the biggest takeaways from Kohli's cricketing persona would be the number of hours that he gave to succeeding at the international level.

There were times in his career when he tasted failure as a cricketer and was expelled from the eternal purple patch he enjoys as a batsman. However, he made sure to rise stronger, better and harder every time he was thrown into the mud.

When he struggled to judge the movement of the ball outside the off-stump in England back in 2014, he went back to the drawing board, persevered on removing the glitch out of his technique and returned to the Test arena to score 11 centuries in the next 31 games that he played. His batting average after he sustained the England nightmare has been 59.30 and of those eleven Test hundreds, seven were scored away from home.

He is struggling to hold on to catches in the slip quadrant at the moment. So, what is the Indian skipper doing to eradicate that from his otherwise stellar resume as a fielder? Here's what: he is putting himself through intense catch practice sessions anywhere and everywhere he can find the place to jump and dive. He is trying everything to step up as a skipper whenever he stands in those slips.

This is his the level of dedication he has. This is what it takes to be Virat Kohli.

Ridiculous work ethic coupled with an almost abnormal level of self-discipline have propelled Kohli to the highest level of performance in the sport. However, he would've been just as successful in any other domain that he might've picked ahead of cricket, and that is because of the enviable and extraordinary work ethic of 29-year-old.

#3 Hold yourself to high standards

Virat Kohli: I like to always lead from the front and set an example for whoever is playing with me or around me. I like taking responsibilities. That is my natural thing.

When Kohli comes out to bat and takes guard in the middle, you can see unflinching desire burning in his eyes. More often than not, that desire seeps into his willow to produce moments of magic and power, simultaneously.

The fact that the Indian skipper is so consistent across all forms of the game points to just one primary cause: he expects a lot from himself and does not settle for mediocrity. Average is for the weak and Kohli has always been an epitome of strength.

No matter what the scoreline is, who the opposition is or how complicated the situation is, Kohli believes in himself to take his team across the finish line. He is not worried about mammoth targets and green pitches do not faze him. This is because he holds himself to the highest of standards and does not want to fall short in any on-field situation.

This is what Kohli stands for and this is what his legacy will represent. It will teach people across the world to dream big and make them understand that low aim is not just a pebble in your shoe, but a crime that you commit against your very self.

#2 Strive to be the pillar of support as a leader

Virat Kohli: Honestly it is the players that make you the captain that you become. To be very honest, anyone knows how to set fields in the ground, it's just that you have to make sure that you take up the responsibility of keeping the energy of the team up.

One of the biggest highlights of Kohli's still-nascent captaincy career has been the endless support and encouragement that he has extended towards his teammates.

In every post-match interview, he is seen lauding the efforts of the players who do well and standing up for those who fail to perform on the day. Ever since he took the leadership baton from MS Dhoni, he hasn't publicly criticized a single player of the team and has always looked to raise plaudits to them in national as well as international media.

It is believed that when you speak to the press, you are indirectly speaking to your own players. Kohli seems to believe in that theory and tries to motivate his teammates individually as well as collectively whenever he takes that powerful mike.

It is a beautiful quality in a leader and definitely is one of the reasons for Kohli's unbelievable stint as the Indian commander so far.

#1 Be true to who you are

Virat Kohli: Pretension is a poor joke that you play on yourself. Snap out of it. Recognise your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Real achievement is liking what you see in the mirror every morning.

When Kohli took over as the leader of the Indian Cricket Team after MS Dhoni stepped down from the position, he was under unreal amounts of pressure. He had to fill the shoes of arguably the best captain in Indian history and do so without changing the functioning dynamics of the team.

However, Kohli never tried to fit into Dhoni's shoes. Instead, he brought his own footwear to the table.

Dhoni was a calm, composed and collected captain who believed in keeping a poker face on the field. Kohli, on the other hand, is an individual who likes to express himself during a game. When Kohli was announced as the Indian skipper in 2015, he never tried to change his attitude to become more like Dhoni. That is what made his captaincy click with the team seamlessly.

Not to forget, he developed a terrific working relationship with Dhoni after taking over from him. A relationship, which empowers India to win difficult matches in tough conditions due to its amalgam of experience with enthusiasm.