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Tony Robbins' blog: Serena Williams

tdp1205

New member
I found this post to be very interesting, especially with the US Open going on right now:
https://www.tonyrobbins.com/career-business/serena-williams-unapologetic-greatness/

I remember watching the French Open, and thinking, "Why is Serena still pushing herself? She could retire right now and still be considered one of the great tennis players of all time, possibly the greatest."

The blog post talks about five ways that Serena has managed her brand and career, but the second way really caught my eye: "Change the rules to reflect today's reality, not yesterday's". Serena had an amazing career before she became a mother, but she is not content to rest on previous accomplishments. She is using her power as one of the game's premier players to get the seeding rules changed so that pregnancy does not cause a player to totally lose her tennis ranking. Serena is changing things to match her current reality, that of a world-class athlete returning to competition after giving birth and suffering complications (she had a blood clot after giving birth to her daughter that could have been fatal).

You go, girl!
tdp
 

lpvander

New member
Tony's first guideline in this blog is "Build Winning Routines." Routine, consistency, work ethic are all the things that help us achieve goals and achieve our dreams. As a writer, finding your routine is the most important and most difficult thing to accomplish. You know just writing at a certain time every single day or writing a certain amount of words every single day will "condition" you, as Tony says in that post. This also applies to other areas like fitness, business, etc. Yet in my case, as a writer, I want the inspiration, passion, intelligence of my words to just leap onto the page whenever I do eventually sit down with my coffee to write.

But I think many people will agree with the fact that inspiration is a lousy wingman. Immediate perfection is a fool's errand. Accepting this creed of Tony's "Repetition is the mother of skill" is arduous. But as we see with the case of Serena Williams: it can pay off in spades.

Tony's blog post here recommends creating goals and strategies to reach these goals. Starting small.

I try to implement this advice with my weekly goal of writing at least once or twice a week (full-time jobs add to the difficulty of furthering routines). I've noticed one of the biggest ways I don't end up reaching my goal: making up excuses on the day of. For examples: I need to go get coffee, I should really do some cleaning, why not just watch some Bravo TV? Stopping myself from actualizing those excuses from just thoughts in my head into action has been a boon for my craft.

In the words of writer Octavia Butler, "Forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice."
 

btelli

Member
Tony's first guideline in this blog is "Build Winning Routines." Routine, consistency, work ethic are all the things that help us achieve goals and achieve our dreams. As a writer, finding your routine is the most important and most difficult thing to accomplish. You know just writing at a certain time every single day or writing a certain amount of words every single day will "condition" you, as Tony says in that post. This also applies to other areas like fitness, business, etc. Yet in my case, as a writer, I want the inspiration, passion, intelligence of my words to just leap onto the page whenever I do eventually sit down with my coffee to write.

But I think many people will agree with the fact that inspiration is a lousy wingman. Immediate perfection is a fool's errand. Accepting this creed of Tony's "Repetition is the mother of skill" is arduous. But as we see with the case of Serena Williams: it can pay off in spades.

Tony's blog post here recommends creating goals and strategies to reach these goals. Starting small.

I try to implement this advice with my weekly goal of writing at least once or twice a week (full-time jobs add to the difficulty of furthering routines). I've noticed one of the biggest ways I don't end up reaching my goal: making up excuses on the day of. For examples: I need to go get coffee, I should really do some cleaning, why not just watch some Bravo TV? Stopping myself from actualizing those excuses from just thoughts in my head into action has been a boon for my craft.

In the words of writer Octavia Butler, "Forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice."
I completely agree with everything you’ve said, especially in terms of writing. I never seem to have the inspiration to write, even when I try to set aside time to complete my goals. I’ve tried using my own life experiences as inspiration, but sometimes my memory fails me. Then, when I try to rely on creativity to fill in the gaps, I lack the inspiration and it just ends up being a vicious cycle.

I’ve always been told to “just write” and worry about the editing later, but in the back of my mind I wonder, do the experts and famous writers (or athletes, business people, etc.) even do that? When you “just do it” is that really a surefire way to accomplish goals? It works for athletes like Serena Williams, because of course practice makes perfect, but can it really apply to other areas, like writing or accounting for example? Perhaps sometimes it does, but I haven’t had the motivation to consistently try it. As you said, excuses and whatnot tend to get in the way.

I love the quote from Octavia Butler by the way. As an English Major, I really enjoyed some of her work in college. Her statement, considering she is a well-known author, is a prime example of how routine is more reliable than inspiration. So perhaps taking that advice would do us all some good!
 

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