Issue 475 - New Balls Please!

Hi,
I hope Wednesday finds you well.
I'm writing this on Wednesday instead of Monday because I have been flat out busy, and try as I might to squeeze in the writing, it didn't get done.

I could try the excuse of 'the dog ate it', but even in the murky realms of my mind that would be pushing it -
Firstly no dog.
Secondly I don't know many dogs that eat laptops.

This week gave lots to write about - there's the 60 year anniversary of the NHS, and I also turned 42.
Someone said they hoped I enjoyed my next journey around the sun.
That was either a poetic way of putting it, that I hadn't heard before, or it was saying I should be fired off in a rocket, one of the two!

Then there was Wimbledon, and as the cries of 'new balls please!' indicate a British summer like no other phrase, that's the subject for today.

It's a great one for this newsletter as it emcompasses goal setting, hard work over a period of years with no guarantee of success, and the mental toughness needed.
Tennis is a peculiar sport.
It's still viewed in this country with a distinct middle class and upwards background, unlike most other countries around the world.

It's a gladiatorial sport - it's 2 individuals against each other, with no time limit.
The scoring system means that anyone can be match point down and come back to win.
Those 2 elements together mean that you have to beat your opponent, you can't play to run out time if you are ahead, you always have to be pressing on.

I've written before about Maria Sharapova, about the Williams sisters, and Billy Jean King.
This year threw up some good stories.

There was a Chinese woman semi finalist for the first time, a direct result of the Olympics going to China.
They threw masssive amounts of money at the game to produce world class players, and it has paid off.

Ana Ivanovic went out early in the competition, and she said the pressure of recently getting to World Ranked Number 1 and winning in France had got too much for her.

Someone who had not so much pressure but a huge drive was Rafael Nadal. Having won the French 4 times in a row, he was trying to do what no-one had done since Bjorn Borg back in 1980 - win both the French and Wimbledon in the same season.
He had reached the Wimbledon final 2 years running, lost to Roger Federer in 4 sets in 2006, lost to Federer in 5 sets in 2007, and found himself 2 sets up in the final against Federer this year.

Federer dug into his 5 time champion well of spirit, mental toughness taken for granted, and fought back via that scoring system to take the game into a final set.
No tiebreaks in the final set, the match goes on and on like 2 boxers punching away, and eventually it was Nadal that came out on top.

A lot of finals can be anticlimatic, but this one was a cracker, the longest ever, and finishing in near darkness.

Pick any one of these Wimbledon stories and see how they apply to your life.
Do you set goals for yourself?
Do you work your socks off, for years, in pursuit of that goal?
Are you able to take knock backs and failures, coming back for more?

I don't the answers to those questions in how they relate to you, but you need to make sure that you do!

Ok, that's it for today, I'm off to cry 'new balls please!' from various rooftops...

'Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
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