#412 How Roger Federer Works

I spent years whining, swearing, and throwing my racket before I learned how to keep my cool. My wake up call came early in my career when an opponent publicly questioned my mental discipline. He said, Roger will be the favorite for the first two hours, and then I'll be the favorite after that. I realized what he was saying. Everybody can play well in the first two hours. You're fit. You're fast. You're clear. After two hours, your legs get wobbly. Your mind starts wandering, and your discipline starts to fade. It made me realize I had so much more work ahead of me. My parents, my coaches, everyone had been calling me out, and now my rivals were doing it. I am eternally grateful for what he did because it made me work harder and train harder, a lot harder. That was an excerpt not from the book that I'm gonna talk to you about today, but actually from Roger Federer's commencement address that he gave at Dartmouth after he retired. And before I get into this incredible book that I read about Roger Federer, which is called The master, the long run-in the beautiful game of Roger Federer written by Christopher Clary, I wanna pull out a few quotes from Federer's excellent commencement address. And so Federer had three main ideas that he shared in the commencement address. Number one, effortlessness is a myth. Number two, it's only a point. And number three, life is bigger than the court. I wanna jump to point number two. This is my favorite part of the entire commencement address. He says perfection is impossible. It is only a point. In the 1,526 single matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches. Now I have a question for you. What percentage of points do you think I won in those matches? Only 54%. In other words, even top ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play. When you lose every second point on average, you learn not to dwell on every shot. You teach yourself to say, okay, I double faulted. It's only a point. Okay. I came to the net and I got passed again. It's only a point. Even a great shot, an overhead backhand smash that ends up on a top 10 playlist, that too is just a point. Here is why I'm telling you this. When you are playing a point, it has to be the most important thing in the world, and it is. But when it's behind you, it's behind you. This mindset is really crucial because it frees you to fully commit to the next point and the next point after that with intensity, clarity, and focus. The truth is whatever game you play in life, sometimes you're going to lose a point, a match, a season, a job. It is a roller coaster with many ups and downs, and it's natural when you're …