<center><h1>The Inner Game of Tennis</h1></center> [[Book Recaps/The Inner Game of Tennis]] My takeaway of Inner Game is our internalized self-judgement and obsession with failure interrupt our ability to try new things and grow. --- You need to get out of your own way. A simple ideal, but an incredibly difficult task. You are willing to heap abuse on yourself at the slightest misstep but unwilling to push yourself outside of your comfort zone even though your experience of it in the past has been so powerful. --- Gallwey hints at the idea of flow state throughout, focusing mainly on how it’s expressed during a tennis match. “In fact, those playing “out of their mind” are more aware of the ball, the court, and, when necessary, the opponent. But they are not aware of giving themselves a lot of instructions, thinking about how to hit the ball, how to correct past mistakes, or how to repeat what they just did. They are conscious, but not thinking, not over-trying”. True flow state, when you’re in it, rarely feels conscious you’re simply acting until you’re knocked out of it. --- The distinction between Self 1, the conscious, and Self 2, the unconscious helps us dissect the main message. Self 1 is the conscious you reading this while Self 2 is the one who will remind you of this moment the next time it feels the conscious getting in the way. --- Self 1 is quick to judge mistakes. Its core function is survival. It seeks safety. It wants control. --- “free of blocks, inhibitions, cautions, fears, doubts, controls, reservations, self-criticisms, brakes” these are the tools of Self 1. This is how it forces you to act. It does not know how to get out of its own way. --- Compassion, detachment, locus of control, self-belief - these are the skills of those who lack judgement. In doing so, you are able to achieve the kind of “focused play” Gallwey views as foundational to high performance training and learning. --- In taking action, it is crucial you not fall into judgmental thinking. As you judge, your brain starts to pick things apart without the full context. This is more acceptable during practice and learning when you have the moments. When it’s time to take action you must move on quickly from your mistakes. --- Self 1 is eager to remind you of times in the past you’ve been a failure. It wants you to believe you are a failure. To attach yourself to that identity. If it does, it succeeds. The moment you stop trying the safer you will be. (I believe it’s good to bully people out of these identities) --- You cannot give Self 2 a role to play that is against your goals --- ~~We never go back at evaluate overperformance when expectations are low. We will always do the opposite. The next time you do, you must counteract those thoughts. Fill your well with all the moments where you were a success. Instead of focusing on the times you failed.~~ --- ~~“Letting go of judgments does not mean ignoring errors. It simply means seeing events as they are and not adding anything to them.“ ![[image.png]] --- Women like to tell me I’m empty-minded, but when the mind is free of any thought or judgment, it is still and acts like a mirror. Then and only then can we know things as they are. --- Gallwey says that Self 1 likes to do things “right” and that’s why it gets nervous, but instead I believe Self 1 uses this as a defensive mechanism. Instead of doing things “right” it does it the way they are told. In this way, even if it fails, Self 1 can put up a defense. “I was only doing as I was told” --- Too many of us viewing learning as this perfect step ladder. A fault of our traditional education system. You have a belief ingrained in you that you must master level 1 before going onto level 2. This is the biggest mistake in self-learning. Your process should be much more free form. The internet allows us to learn as we go in a hundred different directions. You don’t need to fixate on a path. --- Stop obsessing over getting every step perfect. Take action within each step. Do not let yourself get stuck and fixated. --- Collectively, our internal motivation works as a drill sergeant. It judges poor performance, needles your mistakes, and demands perfection. So many of you act as though your you use this to motivate your work and yet you still have nothing to show for it. You need to stop responding to Self 1s judgement and fixation on mistakes. You do not need it to change your behaviors. --- If you keep a journal, you should be earmarking your successes. Too often we let big wins slide by the wayside and focus on the day to day issues and mistakes. Acknowledge your success. Respect your work. Believe in yourself. These patterns reinforce Self 2 as the default network for action. --- I realized deep into reading that all of this conjecture is meaningless if you’re not doing the work. If you have nothing to compare against, no moments of triumph, an empty life then neither Self 1 or Self 2 matter because you’re simply on autopilot --- High achievers have an impeccable ability to trust themselves when others are forced to plan and ruminate on how to succeed --- Trust and respect for your own abilities are the linchpin of effortless action. These characteristics are antithetical to how Self 1 operates. You must reinforce your behaviors. --- Each of us has an illusion that their conscious self can control everything our mind and body does. That there is some little person in our brains running our bodies and managing our thoughts. It’s “their” fault if we don’t act right. In reality, our conscious is simply a filter for limitless stimuli and an explanation for the actions we take. Most of what we do is driven by Self 2 and the unconscious, but Self 1 is all that we see. --- Visualize the work! Do the work. Reap the outcomes. Do not visualize the outcomes! --- To a beginner, experience and experimentation are worth 10x the learned knowledge. --- Once you learn to change a habit you have the significantly easier task of finding which habits to change. Almost all of us have clear cut habits we should change. Very few of us know how to change them. --- Stop spending time arguing with your mind. “Why do I always think this way?” “Why can’t I focus” “Why do I always beat myself up and make myself feel bad?” You need to acknowledge what points it brings up and then let them go. Remind yourself that you are working on things and you need to focus on fixing them rather than focus on fixing the problem. --- Best-case outcomes not fear-based ones. If you can’t get away from a fear-based mindset, really ask yourself what is the absolute worst thing that can happen. --- What do you have to prove to yourself? To others? Act! No one else cares and you’ll forget your achievements like you’ve forgotten all the others. --- If you can’t challenge yourself or have others challenge you you will never grow. Always remember, you can just do things. Learn whatever you want. It’s all at your finger tips. --- Make sure to tie your happiness to outcomes you don’t have any control over. --- “Then, only if the reward is worth the effort, does that person attempt to overcome the obstacle.“ ![[image.jpeg]] --- Critical self-judgements are a momentary motivator not a lifestyle. --- It’s not deluded to believe you can achieve greatness. Average people achieve greatness all the time. It’s deluded to fear the attempt --- Self-improvement has very little to do with the self and a lot to do with skills issues. Awkward around others? Chronic over spender? Lacking curiosity? These are problems your habits have built up. They do not reflect your inner being nor your capabilities. --- What are you doing now? Fixated on your future? Ruminating on your past? The present is here with you. Focus, take action, win. --- “This is the will to win: the single-minded desire to overcome the distraction of overcontrol, obstacles such as self-doubt and fear of failure—with which many have been indoctrinated and have accepted—whether it pertains to matters of performance, career, or even their life goals” --- This is the will to win ![[image 1.jpeg]] ![[image 2.jpeg]] --- You are your future. Every choice you make today influences the ones you make tomorrow and each moment in the future. Do they look like the choices of success?