Outlining Your Goals
Whilst perusing the paper the other day a photo got my attention which deserved an entire article of Mind Games written about. Let’s give some background before we get into the crux of it. Everyone knows that Wimbledon has been and gone and at the time of writing this article Serena Williams had beaten Daniela Hantuchova in a tight 3 set match where she overcame severe cramping. I have to admit that whilst this was impressive I didn’t really follow it too extensively because whilst Hantuchova is the 10th seed it didn’t really surprise me that Williams still found a way to win. Then in the paper the next day they had the following photo attached to the article on this match that got me quite excited.
As you can see it is a picture of a notebook Serena Williams carried with her to court. Before we even look at what it says that point deserves a further mention. She did not know she was going to cramp up and nearly have to pull out of this match. She would have expected a fairly comfortable win, yet she still carried this notebook onto court, which underlines how important it is to her.
Let’s study the right hand side first. The first point she makes to herself is simple yet profound – Positive Thoughts. Have your mind thinking the right way. We have discussed in numerous articles on this site the importance of positive thinking and how it manifests your goals to reality. Go back and read them.
Statements two, three, five and six are all mantras that Williams obviously reminds herself to do with specific parts of her game that she needs to constantly think about. They are all more physical traits. You will look at balls, you will move up (in reference to standing in an attacking position), you will add spin and you will have long follow throughs are all statements pertaining to playing the shot the right way and moving around the court the right way. Get low and turn fast have been isolated and circled as they would be things she knows she is particularly weak in. You notice they are all general comments. This is important as it means that she doesn’t get caught focusing on anything too specific. You never do that as it can lead to neglecting other, just as important parts to the skill. Ironically these six mantras are all things that we constantly remind ourselves in beach volleyball too so for me personally it is great to see that they are on her list.
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