What a great weekend!
Much of the night time was sitting in front of the tele watching semi-finals and finals of the Australian Open tennis.
As you may possibly know, I am a tennis follower with a son who is a keen tennis player and is currently in the US at college.
There is a great similarity between the top sporting professionals and the way we should be leading our lives. They want to get the best out of themselves so they can perform at their peak.
Allow me to give you some examples from the weekend … and no, you don’t have to be sporty to understand this!
First, Ash Barty. Seeded Number One in the world and won the Australian Women’s title for the first time. It’s the best of 3 sets and Ash won the first. In the second set, she was 1-5 down with her opponent, Danielle Collins, playing well and only needing to win one more game to take it to a third set. Ash dug deep and won the set … and the match.
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Lesson: Even when things seem hopeless, it’s important to keep going and focus on what you want to achieve. You never know how things can turn out!
When interviewed, Ash said she had coaches to help her in all aspects of her game and they had been with her since 2016. She also worked on her mental thinking and stayed calm and focused even when things were going against her.
Lesson: Learn how to deal with things so you stay calm and relaxed in all situations.
Second, Rafael Nadal won the Men’s title. He was two sets down (best of 5 sets) and won the last three against an opponent (Daniil Medvedev) who I thought would win.
Lesson: Nadal never gave in. He kept looking for ways to beat his opponent. For you, keep looking for ways to achieve your goals. You will get there.
After the match, Daniil had a shot at the crowd saying no-one was cheering for him and he didn’t know if he wanted to continue playing tennis. In past matches, Daniil had altercations with his opponent, the officiating chairperson and said the Melbourne crowd had a very low IQ.
Let me think why no-one was cheering for him J
Lesson: If you want someone to like you, it is important to do things they will like. Criticising and degrading them will only put them against you.
All Daniil had to do was say positive things, enjoy playing tennis, have some fun and praise an opponent when they do a good shot.
Pretty simple, really.
Last, Nick Kyrgios teamed up with long time friend Thanasi Kokkinakis to win the Men’s Doubles. Nick is a real showman and some dislike the shenanigans he goes on with. They got together to play doubles for the fun of it and upset many along their way to winning the final.
Lesson: When you take the pressure off yourself to perform and have fun, it is amazing what you can do.
There you have it. Some great life lessons to live by.
Enjoy your week.
