Patrick McEnroe’s much anticipated book, Hardcourt Confidential…stories from a life in tennis, hit the shelves yesterday!
Watch my short interview of Patrick McEnroe where he discusses practicing a spirit of giving back to the sport of tennis and where I praise Patrick who has clearly established himself as not only a tennis champion but also a world recognized Ambassadors of the sport.
(2 minutes 36 seconds)
Abraham Lincoln : “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have…”
“It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” Dr. Carl Sagan
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov)
One of the great young athletes I encountered as a coach and mentor is a young man named Kevin McNamara. From a young age he developed his talent in various sports by working hard, exercising self discipline and having the uncanny ability to “step it up” in big game situations….I have alway been fascinated by people who are “pure competitors” and who have not become overcome by nerves or big events but rather who are able to almost slow things down and achieve optimal performance. Their passion and focus come forward just when we mortals – at times – let fearful projection get the better of us.
Kevin has showed me something both in Ice Hockey and in Tennis. He embraces the battle and he is well on his way in terms of reaching his goal of becoming an NHLer. Thanks goes to Kevin for sharing the article below which had been given to him by another former coach. Good stuff….
In 1957, Earl Nightingale, speaker, author and co founder of the Nightingale-Conant Corporation, recorded his classic motivational record “The Strangest Secret.” “The Strangest Secret” sold over one million copies and made history in the recording industry by being honored as the first Gold Record for the spoken word. Nightingale, known as the “dean of personal development,” concluded that life’s “strangest secret” is that we become what we think about all day long.
Your belief system, like your computer, doesn’t judge or even question what you input; it merely accepts your thoughts as the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Think thoughts of defeat or failure and you’re bound to feel discouraged.
Continuous thoughts of worry, anxiety and fear are unhealthy and often manifest in the body as stress, panic attacks and depression.
At the core of Earl’s message, he reveals the incredible power of positive self-talk, belief and expectation.
What you vividly imagine and hold in your subconscious mind begins to out picture as your reality.
Your belief system not only defines your reality, but it also shapes your character and determines your potential.
The Placebo Effect
The ability of the mind to cure a disease even when the medicine is known to be worthless is known as the “placebo effect.” This occurs in medical trials where doctors give patients sugar pills, but tell them they will cure their illness. Often it does, even though the pills contain nothing of medical benefit. The only thing of value in these medical trials is the patient’s own belief that the sugar pills will cure them. It’s the power of the patient’s belief and expectation alone that produces the improvement in his or her health. I recently read a remarkable story about a group of cancer patients who thought they were being treated with chemotherapy, but were actually given a placebo.
Before their treatment began, the patients were informed about the complications associated with undergoing chemotherapy treatment, such as fatigue and loss of hair.
Amazingly, based on nothing more than their belief and expectation, nearly one third of the patients who were given the placebo reported feeling fatigued and actually experienced hair loss!
The Power of Affirmation and Positive Self-talk
If you had access to a powerful tool that would enhance your self-esteem and allow you to reach your full potential would you use it?
A good way to create positive self-talk is through affirmations. An affirmation is a positive statement that represents your desired condition or outcome.Interesting enough, your subconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between a real experience and a vividly imagined “mental” experience.
When he was a struggling young comedian, late at night Jim Carey would drive into the hills overlooking Hollywood and yell at the top of his lungs “I will earn ten million dollars a year by 1995.” When 1995 finally arrived, Jim was the star of the movie Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, for which he was aid twenty million dollars!
World-class athletes understand the value of affirmation and recognize the impact of their mental preparation on their physical performance.
They use the power of positive affirmation to reduce anxiety and increase their expectation of achievement. To be of maximum benefit an affirmation must be simple, encouraging and stated in the present tense.
By repeating an affirmation over and over again it becomes embedded in the subconscious mind.
To be effective your affirmation must be stated aloud…
1. In a positive manner with the focus on what you want. When you catch yourself saying or thinking something negative about yourself, counteract the negative self-talk with a positive affirmation. Start your affirmation with words like “I am…” or “I already have…” Example: “I close sales with little or no resistance.” “I take good care of my customers and they show their appreciation by referring their friends to me.”
2. In the present tense. Your subconscious mind works in the present tense, so avoid words such as can, will, should or could. Example: “I love doing my work and I am richly rewarded creatively and financially.”
3. With strong emotion and conviction.
4. Repeatedly. I suggest you read your affirmations each morning upon awakening and again each night just before falling asleep. Close your eyes and picture the end result. Feel the emotions associated with the affirmation.
Here are some of my favorite affirmations:
“Every day in every way I’m getting better and better!”
“Everything comes to me easily and effortlessly!”
“I love and appreciate myself just as I am!”
“I love doing my work and I am richly rewarded creatively and financially!”
“I now have enough time, energy, wisdom and money to accomplish all my desires!”
“Infinite riches are now freely flowing into my life!”
“I am relaxed and centered!”
“I feel happy and blissful!”
Do affirmations really work and can they be used to propel a person to achieve greatness? As a young boy growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, 12-year-old Cassius Marcellus Clay dreamed of someday becoming the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. When working out in the gym, Clay would continuously affirm to all within earshot that he was indeed the greatest boxer of all time!
While many felt he was brash and boastful, few people actually took this 89-pound youngster seriously.
Mohammad Ali used his affirmation to become the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the world
and arguably one of the most popular and recognized sports figures of all times!
“Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Choose your words, for they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become habits. Study your habits, for they will become your character. Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny.” –
Anonymous
You show me a salesperson with high self-esteem, a positive attitude and a healthy work ethic and I’ll be able to predict his or her success in advance… I guarantee it.
The diner scene is a classic and once of my favorite movie scenes of all time; Below is the dialog between an increasingly irritated waitress (Lorna Thayer) and Jack Nicholson’s character, Bobby….too good. Try renting an old movie once in a while…no fancy photography, plain old good scripts and great acting from an era gone bye in movies:
Bobby tries to order breakfast in a diner:
Bobby: I’d like a plain omelet no potatoes tomatoes instead, a cuppa coffee and wheat toast
Waitress: No substitutions
Bobby: What do you mean? You don’t have any tomatoes?
Waitress: Only what’s on the menu. You can have a #2, plain omelet, comes with cottage fries and rolls.
Bobby: I know what it comes with but it’s not what I want.
Waitress: I’ll come back when you make up your mind.
Bobby: Wait a minute, I have made up my mind. I’d like an plain omelet, no potatoes on the plate, a cuppa coffee and a side order of wheat toast.
Waitress: I’m sorry, we don’t have any side orders of toast. It’s a muffin or a coffee roll.
Bobby: What do you mean you don’t make side orders of toast. You make sandwiches don’t you?
Waitress: Would you like to talk to the manager?
Bobby: You’ve got bread and a toaster of some kind?
Waitress: I don’t make the rules.
Bobby: Okay, I’ll make it as easy for you as I can. I’d like an omelet plain and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, no mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce. And a cup of coffee.
Waitress : A #2, chicken sal sand. Hold the butter, the lettuce, the mayonnaise, and a cup of coffee. Anything else?
Bobby: Yeah, now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven’t broken any rules.
Waitress: You want me to hold the chicken, huh?
Bobby: I want you to hold it between your knees.
Willie said it best when he wrote:
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”
William Shakespeare
Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.
Norman Vincent Peale
Three Lefties - Shultz, McNamee, Palandjian
February practice with the Harvard Tennis Men’s Team (pictured from left Christo Schultz, Will McNamee, Paul Palandjian). Congratulations goes out to the team and Coaches Fish and Rueb for their victory in winning the ECAC Team Championships last weekend hosted by Yale. Harvard defeated Brown, Princeton and the always “dirty” Columbia tennis teams to win the tournament in decisive fashion.
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