So I am channel surfing the other day and I run across a panel discussion with an actor whose name escapes me, some business dude(I think) and two people I did recognize, Marcus Luttrel (of sole survivor fame) and Michael Strahan (of NY Giants football fame and recently everywhere on tv). Michael Strahan said something that I think all of us can learn from. He stopped worrying about winning and losing and focused totally on something he could control; his performance. He competed hard in practice and hard in games.
Often when the team was losing(trust me-I am a Giants fan-that was often) he still refused to come out of the game and competed as hard as he could. We can take something from that. Competing hard is something we can control; winning and losing is not always so easy to control.
Now I will add to that a name well-known in Racquetball circles. In one of our USA Team meetings Doug Ganim, World Champion, Pan Am Champion, and former US Open Tournament Director, spoke to the team. He said that he imagined anyone watching him play was watching him for the first time. His goal was to show them an athlete who never quit, and gave their best. Like Michael Strahan, Doug was all in every competition. He brought that same drive to the production of the US Open.
Ironically if competing hard is the goal, you will win a ton more games than if it is just winning you are focused on. I know that seems to make no sense, but ask the experienced athletes of all levels who are successful. They do not operate with fear of failure because they compete more against themselves than an opponent!
Go get’em tigers!