The Inner Game of Tennis

Self 1 and Self 2. The relationship between them is, as Gallwey notes, the first major postulate of the Inner Game.

So, who is Self 1 and who is Self 2?

In short, imagine you’re playing tennis. You make a shot you’re not thrilled about. You tell yourself, “Come on! Keep your eyes on the ball.” “Bend your knees.” etc., etc., etc.

Who’s talking to whom? Gallwey tells us Self 1 is the version of you constantly telling Self 2 what to do. Self 1 is the “teller” and Self 2 is the “doer.”

Other mental performance experts like Lanny Bassham describe Self 1 as the Conscious Mind and Self 2 as the Subconscious Mind. (Lanny adds “Self-Image” as a third component to his Mental Management® System. Check out the Notes on With Winning in Mind for more on that.)

The #1 thing we want to remember: It’s ALL about learning to trust Self 2.

Self 1/your Conscious Mind *thinks* it’s the one who should be driving the show, but it’s not.

Heidi Grant Halvorson, one of the world’s leading researchers focused on the science of success/goal setting puts it this way in her book Succeed (see Notes): “Metaphorically speaking, if your unconscious mind can hold information equivalent to a NASA supercomputer, your conscious mind can hold roughly the contents of a Post-it note.”

Think about it. Your subconscious mind is currently (and every.single.moment) perfectly orchestrating billions and billions of things (literally) right now. You’re reading this while, somehow, your heart continues to beat, your lungs are keeping you oxygenated, your body is kept at a regular temperature and COUNTLESS other things are going on behind the scenes to keep you rockin’.

And you’re not “thinking” about it at all. For some reason, when we get into things like tennis or golf or sales or teaching (or whatever) we think “we” (aka the thinking/Post-it note version of ourselves) needs to be in charge for things to go smoothly.

But remember:

Self 2/Subconscious Mind = NASA supercomputer.

Self 1/Conscious Mind = Post-it note.

Hmmmmmmmm… Which one do you want driving the show?! (Hah!)

Here’s another way to look at it. Jon Eliot tells us about the difference between a “Trusting Mindset” and a “Training Mindset” in his great book Overachievement (see Notes): “To be sure, great performers are well trained, experienced, smart, and in some cases, divinely talented. But the way their brains work during a performance is a lot more like a squirrel’s than like Einstein’s. Like squirrels, the best in every business do what they have learned to do without questioning their abilities—they flat out trust their skills, which is why we call this high- performance state of mind the ‘Trusting Mindset.’ Routine access to the Trusting Mindset is what separates great performers from the rest of the pack.”

Now let’s take a look at HOW to settle down Self 1 and fully trust Self 2!

If we want to learn how to trust our Self 2/NASA supercomputerselves and just let it rip, we need to learn how to QUIET THE MIND!

You notice that little monkey swinging around up there constantly evaluating everything?

Well, we want less “thinking, calculating, judging, worrying, fearing, hoping, trying, regretting, controlling, jittering or distracting” going on up there.

Gallwey tells us that the first skill we want to develop as we learn how to quiet our mind is to let go of the human inclination to constantly (!) judge everything as either good or bad. We want to observe what’s happening “cleanly”—without labeling everything as either good or bad. It just is what it is. No big deal.

We hit the ball into the net. That’s not “BAD” and it’s not helpful (!) to let our inner critic run loose with “You’re such an idiot!” “Gah. AGAIN! Now we’re going to lose.” etc.

I love the way Troy Bassham walks us through his post-task process in Attainment (see Notes). He tells us “What you allow yourself to think about after a task matters.”

He calls his process “re-loading” and it goes like this:

• If you hit your target/perform the way you wanted to, you feast on that. “GREAT!”
• If you did OK, you simply say, “OK.”
• If you were way off target, you don’t beat yourself up. You simply say, “Needs work.” Nice and neutral. A clean observation: “Needs work.” Then you quickly imagine what a better/perfect outcome would have looked like so you can program that into your subconscious and bam. Done. You’re back in the moment.

<— That is a GREAT way to quiet the mind, use Self 1 wisely and trust Self 2!

Here’s to simply observing and re-loading!

I just love that.

Reminds me of a couple other great rose gems. Let’s reflect on them to cultivate the seed. :)

First, Thomas Sterner puts it this way in The Practicing Mind (see Notes): “As we attempt to understand ourselves and our struggles with life’s endeavors, we may find peace in the observation of a flower. Ask yourself: at what point in a flower’s life, from seed to full bloom, has it reached perfection?”

Plus: “Accepting that this is a lifetime effort, and that in the beginning your progress may seem almost unnoticeable, is part of the lesson to be learned. Keep thinking of the flower. Regardless of whatever stage of growth and evolution you are in, in every moment you are perfect at being who you are.”

Vernon Howard frames it this way in The Power of Your Supermind (see Notes) where he tells us: “Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.”

So, let’s remember the perfection of the rose at each stage of its development as we embrace each stage of OUR development!

Gallwey continues by telling us: “Similarly, the errors we make can be seen as an important part of the development process. In its process of developing, our tennis game gains a great deal from errors. Even slumps are part of the process. They are not “bad” events, but they seem to endure endlessly as long as we call them bad and identify with them. Like a good gardener who knows when the soil needs alkali and when acid, the competent tennis pro should be able to help the development of your game. Usually the first thing that needs to be done is to deal with the negative concepts inhibiting the innate developmental process.”

(That’s so good.)

Remember: Your judgments aren’t helping.

Just see your behaviors as they are.

If you observe that you feel better after eating a certain way, then note that—without judgment.

If you observe that you feel more alive and happy when you exercise, don’t beat yourself up for going a week without exercise. Just notice and then choose a new behavior.

If you observe that you are cranky when you don’t get a good night of rest, don’t judge. Just see if you can get a little more rest tonight.

Here’s to developing our nonjudgmental awareness and appreciating every step of our unfolding awesomeness!

“Asking for qualities.”

This is one of Gallwey’s three practices for communicating with Self 2. (The other two? Letting go of judgments and the art of creating images of the outcomes you want to see.)

When he asks his players to try this their performance goes way up.

How about you?

How would you show up in your life if you acted like a top-flight pro in your given field, adopted professional mannerisms and did your thing with super self-assurance—with no doubt and pure confidence?

ACT LIKE THAT.

Seriously.

How would you walk, talk, breathe and be if you were acting like the best possible version of yourself? Be that.

And watch your performance soar.

From peak performance coaches to positive psychologists, if there’s one universal theme that ALL great mental training teachers come back to it’s this.

Bring your mind back to the present via your breath.

Gallwey doesn’t even try to change his breathing, he simply observes it. That act alone brings you out of any fear of the future or regret of the past and into this moment.

Breathing. It’s HUGE.

You bringing your attention to your breath when your mind starts to get a little jumpy?

Gallwey shares this wisdom in a genius chapter on the meaning of competition.

He describes how he struggled with the idea of competition until he realized that we can only actualize our latent potential in the face of obstacles that challenge us to bring out our absolute best. When viewed through that lens, competition is amazing because our opponent provides the very challenge we need to actualize our potential.

Then, we can go so far as to truly love our opponent (and our challenges) because they are giving us an opportunity to grow and become better human beings.

How’s your relationship to challenges in your life?

Can you see just a little more clearly how they’re the fuel to your actualization?!

This is another Big Idea.

Gallwey tells us that we need to be more like babies learning to walk. They don’t get all upset with themselves because they have the “bad habit” of crawling. They just move on to walking because it’s simply a better way to get around. (Hah!)

Too often we beat ourselves up with obsessive judgment about our bad habits and convince ourselves that it will be super hard to create new habits.

That’s one way to approach it.

Another way is to simply start new habits.

Let go of the imagined difficulties and just go rock it.