Life Lesson: stick it out

So you know last September I began my tennis journey in 1.0 (Tennis Made Easy) – like this is below beginners. I was pretty good in that class, so I went to the next level 1.5. 

Near the end of the 1.5 season, the coach said something critical, “2.0 is harder. You will be with players better than you. You’ll want to find what’s most comfortable for you. You don’t want to be with much better players than yourself because you’ll get frustrated, but you don’t want to be with players much worse than you because you won’t grow.” 

So, what do you do?

I decided to go for it and take 2.0.

My first class, I was a minnow in the Pacific Ocean. At one point I was supposed to be rallying with a much older gentleman and he was just standing there because I couldn’t serve the ball over the net – he was clearly bored. 

After that first 2.0 class I felt the angst – I really wanted to retreat to my comfort zone of being one of the top players in the class. These thoughts started playing on my confidence and the more I felt as though I sucked at this, the worse I did. 

Then, I took a different approach and instead said to myself:

1.    I deserve to be here just as much as anyone else.

2.    Relax Debbie and have fun with this. Don’t take yourself so seriously.

3.    Great tennis players didn’t begin their journey as being great tennis players – they started at the same beginner skill level that I’m at now.

I often want to start something and be perfect at it, one shot – not go through the growing pains.

So, the moral of the story is stick it out. If it’s something you love that gives you a burst of positive energy (and frustration at the same time), and you look forward to doing that special thing, stick it out. You will grow, look back and see how far you’ve reached. 

Can you think of a time that you stuck it out, or you didn't stick it out – we've all been there.

Our next Money Chat is this coming Monday, January 27 @ 7:00 pm. We’ll be talking about what our priorities are for 2025.

We'll also be carrying on our discussion online, you can join here.