The Three Steps to Success
Former Grand Slam Champ and world number one tennis player, Boris Becker was being interviewed on the radio one day.
“Have you always been better than everyone else”, asked the interviewer?
“No,” he replied. When he was young, he had been identified as a prospect, although other lads his age were better and some more naturally talented. He added that sometimes he had to play the best girls because the boys were too good for him.
“So what happened to those boys,” asked the interviewer, “how did you go on to gain so much success and they didn’t?”
“Well, they just didn’t make it. Even with their natural talent, they didn’t have what it takes, because it takes much more than that,” he replied.
“So what does it take then?”, asked the interviewer.
“You’ve got to want it badly enough.”
“So, that’s the secret? Wanting it badly enough?”
“No, not just that. It takes discipline. No matter how much God-given talent, you must have the discipline to nurture and develop what talent you have. You’ve got to decide what’s most important to you and give up many other things so you can focus on that.”
“So, that’s the secret, then, discipline?”
“No, not entirely. There’s another and this is harder than the first two. It’s humility. You need humility, no matter how good you think you are. You need humility to listen to your coaches, to take their advice, to test and try new things and to admit you don’t know everything. To accept that maybe you aren’t quite as good as you think you are or would like to be just yet.
“These are the three secrets to my success,” said Becker.
. . .
Primary Source: Nick Owen
Mental Toughness Factors: Challenge, Commitment
My takeaways:
Talent will only get you so far. Commitment and mindset are often more important.
No person is an island. No matter how good you are, you’ll need the support of other people to achieve your potential.
Questions to consider:
Do you have all three?
Which one would you say you need to improve on?
If you improved that by just 10%, what difference would that make?
