Acknowledge the “blessed” ones

“I want energy, I want passion, I want joy, […] If she can beat you doing that, then God bless her. Shake her hand.” This is what tennis coach Nick Saviano told Sloane Stephens on April 1st, 2015 after she dropped the first set in the Miami Open, 1-6, to Simona Halep. One set later, that’s what Sloane did.

Words worth living by. Sometimes, no matter how much energy, passion or joy you put in the things you do, someone else might be “blessed” to be better than you. The only way to deal with that is to shake its hand at the end. As simple and sublime.

And, even if your “time to shine” is for now postponed, by remaining passionate, energized and joyful you’ll honor the core values of the game you love to play. So you’ll became the absolute winner anyone else will respect shaking the hand with at the end! And this might become your “blessing”. 🙂

In businesses I’ve seen many times strong professionals dissatisfied for not advancing in their career as the hierarchical relevant spots were already taken by others, many times as passionate and committed to success as them. They tend to become frustrated as exclusively relate own professional recognition to career ladder climbing. It’s maybe worth for them to look to the above to find a way of coping with existing realities as long as their love and passion to the things they do are still there.

A day after winning in front of Sloane, at the end of an enthusiastic 3 sets game, was Simona’s turn to “shake” Serena Williams’s hand – one of most “blessed” WTA all time players.