Never take anything for granted

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening wherever in the world you are. Today I'm coming to you from a Shake Shack in Indianapolis. My bags didn't make it through yesterday on the flight, so I had to pick them up from the airport today. It's a usual travel story as to why it wasn't delivered to my hotel, but I took advantage of the trip on my way back to stop and check out a little if Indianapolis. Walking around at over 90 degrees the thought of a cookies and cream shake from Shake Shack loomed large in my head and had to be the order of the day. Anyway, today I'm going to talk about complacency and how at the highest level you can never take anything for granted. Even when things are going well such as Liam Broady making 3rd round of Wimbledon, beating Diego Schwartzman, the number 12 in the world and then qualifying for Newport only to lose a close match, we enter this week conscious of how dangerous round one will be, given it against Max Purcell the recently crowned Wimbledon doubles champion who is full of confidence. The pressure at a high level of any profession is that every day you have to be on it or you can and most probably will lose. The level is extremely high. In Indianapolis he starts again Monday or Tuesday and whilst this is a challenger you can take nothing for granted because you start fresh, nervous, eager to do well but given the margins are so small it is difficult to feel comfortable even if you're favoured to win. There's a different pressure when you know and believe that winning the tournament is a distinct possibility but only if you put in the relentless hard work and that a little luck falls your way. The acceptance that many crises will develop in almost every match and certainly over the course of five matches there is going to be adversity to overcome. Knowing this, you still must believe and remain confident that you have the mindset, the resilience to overcome every obstacle. The only time that you know that you have not overcome all the obstacles is if you shake hands having not won any one of the hopefully five match journey. I will end with this – complacency of any kind, taking any challenge for granted, feeling entitled to have an easier time of it because of previous success will bite you in the ass. The greats in all fields of life know this well and whilst they can relax and enjoy downtime, they never take winning or their job for granted. This is the pressure that must be endured and put on yourself. The diamond that emerges is because of the ability to sustain a work ethic through success and learning.(Listen to episode 2 - the myth of failure) If you like my work and you think my nuggets can help others please share on social media and as always I would love to hear from you about anything that’s on your mind, with ideas, questions, love or any opinions on ways I can do better! Email me at: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices