The most debilitating ‘success blocking’ mental state is the fear of failure.
I love playing tennis, it is my sport, I love the sound of the racket hitting the ball, the feel of the ball on the racket, the precision needed to place the ball where I want, the concentration needed to live in the moment, the fast motion of the legs, the slow motion of the toss of the ball when I serve.
I love being in the zone, my higher self having fun; the rest, the world, people, places and things are in existent. There, on the court it is only me, a ball, a net and a point to be made. One point at the time.
I love tennis, because it is me playing against myself, against my limits, against my fears, it is me who cries yes to life, who experiences the joy of success.
I was 14 when my father died, he died of a heart attack while I was at a tennis camp learning to become unbeatable.
From that moment tennis became my enemy, it became my grief, my loss, it became my fear, my failure. It became my demon.
From that moment I could not play anymore, I was defeated, I was like a ghost, praying to survive, I was just a child asking for protection, asking for a miracle.
Playing tennis became so painful that I had to stop.
Being a winner became so impossible that I broke my left knee so badly that I could never play again for over 20 years.
3 years ago, when I decided that I had enough, that I wanted to play again, that I wanted to feel the grief I never felt, I jogged for 3 weeks every day; I knew the bones in my knee without cartilage would touch one another and they would hurt, hurt so much that I would need a knee replacement.
I had it done, I was the first in the list that morning. The consultant who operated me, Dr Barret, smiled at me before going into the operation chamber. I smiled back and 6 months later I was at a tennis court.
The court was full of demons, as soon as I tried to win I would lose because I was paralysed by fear, fear of success, fear of failure.
I realised that between the two fears, the fear of failure came first. It comes out of insecurity, it comes when we believe that if we fail we fail entirely, that all the value we have as human beings disappears, only because we have lost a point, or a game, or a set, or a match.
The fear of failure is so powerful that it makes us stop doing what we love because the pain of failing becomes unbearable.
I had to learn to lose. Not only a tennis game, but my father again, to lose his love, to lose against God and faith. I had to learn to accept the unacceptable.
It was the most painful learning I have ever experienced, it was a humbling experience that lasted a very long time. Every time I lost a game I had the courage to go back and try again. I built my humbleness.
It is the humbleness that makes me a winner, it is the courage to feel defeated and say to myself: “I have a value, not because I win or lose, but because I am a human being”.