Be Your Best Self

I was playing tennis the other day and had inspiration for another blog post. Yes, another post related to tennis (one of my favorite activities and in my opinion a great sport for increasing mental toughness and resiliency)!

I was playing tennis against a player that hits the tennis ball in a much different style than me. I was trying to figure out the best way to play against her and I started to match her playing style instead of playing my way. This went horribly. I started losing points right and left that I should have won and I became very frustrated. After losing for a while, I took a break and told myself to breathe and think.

Why was I changing to match someone else? Why was I scared to play my way? I was limiting myself and my abilities because of fear of making mistakes. I realized that I needed to play the game my way, with my own style.  Once I started to be myself and play tennis the way that felt genuine and right to me, I started doing so much better. I eventually won that game. I definitely would not have made a comeback if I hadn’t changed strategies.

The moral of this story is that it’s important to be ourselves.  I know we’ve all heard this before, but I think it’s a good reminder. When we try to go through life morphing and adapting into someone else’s way we are not being our true selves. When we are not being ourselves we are not optimizing our strengths.  I encourage you to look at the strengths you already have, I guarantee you already have many! Go through life as you and not someone else. Be your best self.

Thanks for reading!
Rondale

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