This week I had the privilege of listening to Toni Nadal, coach of #1 tennis legend Rafa Nadal, share his story with the Vistage community. He spoke about his approach to helping Rafa prepare for difficult times. The central focus of Toni was removing all excuses from Rafa’s mindset.
How to Prepare for Difficult Times
Lessons from the life of Rafa Nadal
The Struggle is the Way. It was important for Toni Nadal to help Rafa learn to love the struggle, to accept that nothing worthwhile comes easily.
He worked in practice on Rafa’s capacity to stay the course, to struggle to the end, to fight to the last minute of practice, the last point in a match.
“An excuse has never won a match”
Toni Nadal
The excuse may be true, it may not be my fault, but only when I completely accept responsibility for my current situation can I find the power to change the path.
Your excuses are all correct.
Rafa: “It was hot” -> Toni: “It must have just have been hot on half the court?”
Toni Nadal worked on character, not on ability
Character gets you through the tough times
Where is your Locus of Control, 2 choices:
- Me as responsible,
- World as responsible
I only have power to change my life when I take responsibility for my current and future situation.
It is easy to Give Up
It is easy to complain
It is easy to find reasons to stop fighting
It is easy to give up
It is easy to say that today is not your day
It is easy to say that tomorrow will be better
It won’t be…
Not until you change.
You can use your mind in two ways -> find the excuse, or find the resourcefulness to get through.
If you search for excuses you are guaranteed to find excuses. The smarter you are, the better your excuses.
If you want to throw in the towel, throw in the towel. Just get that life is an uphill struggle…
Uphill Habits
The habits that matter are uphill habits Exercise, Listening, Getting clear on your goals… these take work
Donuts, Complaining and putting the TV on… these just flow down easily.