Coming off of tennis season, we are sure that some of you have had some amazing accomplishments. We're also sure that there have been some major disappointments. Here's our opinion on why those disappointments may help you in ways that you didn't expect.
"Your disappointments in the long run may be
more valuable to you than your accomplishments"
Imagine you're in the middle of a big match. You're in the midst of a long point, and your opponent gives you a short ball to your forehand. You run up for your approach shot, and try to take it cross court. You pull the ball just wide and lose the point.
All of a sudden, a dialogue starts running in your head. "Terrible decision," you think. "I'm the worst," you tell yourself, as all sorts of negative thoughts race through your head.
Two points later, you have game point. Your opponent gives you the same ball. You approach it, and make the exact same mistake in the same spot.
What went wrong? Can you spot your error?
The true mistake was not the first decision. It was that you chastised yourself instead of accepting your mistake and learning from it.
Instead of calmly learning that you should have taken the ball down the line, and remembering it for the next opportunity, you chose to scold yourself. You were given an opportunity to learn, and you turned it down.
And therein lies the challenge of becoming a great tennis player. Every player makes mistakes. The top players in the world only win roughly 53% of the points they play. What allows them to reach that number is not inherent perfection, it's the willingness to accept and learn from failure.
Here's a reality no one should ever sugar-coat: you are going to make mistakes in life. You're going to lose plenty of tennis matches, too. In tennis and in life, the people that succeed are always the ones that are determined to accept the possibility of failure, and make each one a learning experience.
Confidence does not come from the assurance that you will not make mistakes, or never lose -- that is a good way to mislead yourself. It comes from the assurance that you can make it through any mistake, to eventually achieve success.
Don't believe us? Take it from some people who have become the best athletes in the world?
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