I'm a HUGE sports fan and I'm gonna share a tennis story that will hopefully inspire you
I know it will if you just give this post the time it deserves
In 1991, Lindsay Davenport played in her first professional tennis match.
She was 15 years old.
Over the next 20 years, Davenport would go on to have one of the greatest tennis careers in recent history.
She won three different Grand Slam titles.
She won the 1996 Olympic Gold Medal.
She was ranked the Number 1 female tennis player in the world eight different times.
In total, Davenport earned over $22 million in prize money throughout her career
^^^ Not a bad career eh?
Davenport realised at a young age that you have to step outside of your comfort zone to succeed.
She did that by playing against fully grown adults when she was just a kid
She knew she had to improve her craft and the lessons of competition
She needed to work hard and persevere with her craft.
In an interview she says that these things were learned LONG BEFORE she became a professional.
In other words, to learn about what it’s like to live as a professional athlete, you need to be a professional athlete.
But to learn the lessons of playing sports, you just need to play your sport.
Here is todays take home message:
''Excellence Isn’t Required for Growth''
Our world is becoming more and more obsessed with comparison and validation.
But according to Davenport, you don’t need to be a professional to learn the most important lessons in sports.
You just need to bust your butt as an athlete, regardless of the level you're playing at.
I’d say it’s that way in the rest of life as well.
Mastering something isn’t nearly as important as pushing yourself to improve.
To put it another way, you'll learn more from the process of pursuing excellence than from the products of achieving it.
"It's More Important to Start, Than to Succeed"
Personally I believe that it's the willingness to try something new, even if it felt uncomfortable, is all that it takes to start the slow march towards improvement?
What's your attitude like?
1️⃣ Are you curious enough to get in the gym and try it, even if you’ll look stupid?
2️⃣Are you willing to be vulnerable and put your skin in the game to start your new healthy habits?
3️⃣Are you eager enough to improve your lifestyle that you'll battle through the frustration of producing something mediocre?
It all boils down to this: Whether you’ll end up being the best or the worst, are you willing to start?
The more I look at things this way, the more I believe that the willingness to start is the littlest thing in life that makes the biggest difference.
Step onto the field.
Stand up in the meeting.
Raise your hand in class.
Get under the bar.
Walk up to the podium.
Ask the first question.
Take a risk, get started, and contribute something.
To your team, to your family, to your job, to your community.
Whether or not you end up being number one in the world is irrelevant. Most of the time, the value you provide isn’t nearly as important as pushing yourself to provide it. This is especially true at first.
Having the courage to get started is more important than succeeding because the people who consistently get started are the only ones who can end up finishing anything.
"Get Started: Life Isn't a Dress Rehearsal"
I often write about what it means to live a healthy life. I can't think of any skill more critical to the active pursuit of a healthy life than the willingness to start. Everything that signifies a happy, healthy and fulfilled existence Getting stronger, leaner, healthier, happier - it all requires a willingness to get started over and over again. Take note: being the best isn't required to be happy or fulfilled, but being in the game is necessary. Life isn't a dress rehearsal. Only one person lives in the spotlight, but everyone benefits from stepping on stage. Which stage will you step onto? What game will you play? How will you get started?