Forget the Match — Win the Moment

Heart

He swatted back a poorly hit pickleball over the net.

“Oh easy, I can get to that”, I said turning on the gas and racing for it, and as I lunged, my leg gave out and I collapsed like a folding chair.

I lay on my back with both hands cradling my calf. I tore the muscle and rolled around the court like a toddler in a tantrum.

I was cooked. I hobbled over to the bench.

Out.

Out of the game, out of the tournament. It was only halfway through the first heat of the first round . . . of the first game!

I didn’t even get to try any of my electrolyte superpower water yet!

I rocked on the bench rubbing my calf and breaking an ice pack from the tournament table.

How could this happen?

I registered in advance. I drove hundreds of miles for this pickleball tournament. I took off work. I had packed sunscreen. Two actually. I had hotel reservations. I had snacks and bars. Umbrellas, coolers, and chargers. I wrote my name on my paddle. Even on my paddle cover too.

Now out? It’s over? Half way through the first game?

The tournament moved on.

I circled my calf on the ice pack, looking up at the sky, looking for the steady Sun. Right? It’s me where else would I look ☀️ 

Forget the tournament.

I had a question. Forget the match » Did I win the moment? 

My moment here turned out to be half a game. Did I play, did I give, did I enjoy all I could in my moment? That was my question.

100? In spite of my masterful grand architectural blueprints, in spite of my confident ‘all good things’ insatiable ego » I really don’t have control over winning the tournament.

But the moment? It’s up for grabs. Mine for the taking. Is it possible?

I visualized, I planned, I prepared for gold, or at least for some color of a medal, to go deep in the tournament 🏅 

It’s like:

• The plan that they will love me for 65 married years and we die in our sleep together

• The retirement » where we take Mediterranean cruises with the grandkids

• The progressive career where the coins stack higher each year

• The pickleball tournament, where I get a medal. I was prepared 🏆️ 

• The game where my kid scores all the goals

• The University that’s admits me (and the scholarship!)

I couldn’t get my money back on the tournament. There was no guarantee. Only an icepack . . . and melted granola bars.

Friend, you see it right? You are with me? We’re together?

Yeah.

That relationship has no guarantee. I know you drew it up for 65 years and the whole Notebook ending 📖 

I know you saw clients joining regularly, not making 80 sales calls this week.

You saw cashing checks, not lapping the neighborhood dropping off hundreds of flyers.

You saw that stock going to $265 right, then selling. Smooth. I mean all the analysts had a price target of $290 after all.

Me and my brother were suppose to live to be grumpy old men, I saw it. But he’s been gone for ten years now—we didn’t get to finish the tournament 😞 

You were supposed to be ready for bikini season, for selling that novel, for healthy kids, for touring the Egyptian pyramids, to sell your business with the ‘major liquidity event’.

I get it . . . you came to win a medal in the tournament.

But feelings shift. People get sick. Accidents happen.

The damn Fates can play cruel tricks just to pass the time. You can even—even tear your calf muscle and be out in the first game 💯 

That’s why our practice this week at Invisible World is: Win the Moment

I know you. You who subscribe to InspoLetter. To Invisible World. I got you.

And I know you are smart, you are so clever. My ego + your ego, they are workout buddies in the gym at 0530am benching the weights, smokin’ the cardio treadmills.

Oh they are so good, so capable 💪 

But the 65 years ‘go together’ plan is » not guaranteed. The Mediterranean cruise with the grandkids, the charity work digging wells in Ghana?

I hope it happens. It could happen. It’s possible . . . after all, that’s why I packed 2 sunscreens and the suitcase of electrolytes.

Sure I make open space on my mantle for the pickleball medal. Sure.

But Friend, if it doesn’t happen, it’s okay, because 100? 🤫 You can’t actually control winning the tournament anyway.

In your control Jonz? Winning the moment.

Someone told me yesterday their mantra for the year was: Create the life you want to live.

Sounded awesome. I felt the empowering vibe down in my bones.

That’s easy, win the tournament right? But perhaps that’s leaving money on the table. Is there something even more valuable?

So this week Friend: Forget the Match, Win the Moment.

Part 2

Wait what—Part 2? That’s a thing?

I guess we’re not done yet, going for the medal today. Let’s keep going 🤣 

All of this made me think about one of my podcast episodes, the Game Set Match miniseries.

How the margin of victory ends up being a few contested points.

Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Agassi, the best players have only won around just 53% of the points in a match. Crazy.

Or think about it like this:

Roughly 75% of pro tennis players, one more time » pro level seeded ATP players, lose more matches than they win 🤯 

So what to do?

Just Win the Moment. 

How?

Win the first set, or first game, or simply this point.

Win the Moment.

It’s so much pressure to come out and win the 2-week Wimbledon tournament. Win match after match against the world greatest players.

The top ten seeded players, the famous ones, IF they win the first, they historically only lose just a handful of matches all year.

The top ten seeded ATP players average a 97% win probability when they take the first set.

Even the lower seeded players, go on to win 75% of the time if they win the first set.

Sure it would be great to win every point. Sure. But remember the reality: winning just 53% gets you casted in bronze.

Sometimes you are stacking the trophies. Sometimes you are like a Roddick, you play out of your mind. Win one championship, yet never to repeat.

Sometimes you tear your calf muscle.

Sometimes the deal closes you get paid big dollars, and sometimes it doesn’t. And instead you work on the budget all Sunday afternoon instead of the golf course 🥸 

We win some. We lose some. Why?

I don’t know why. I don’t know things like that. And it’s okay.

We don’t need the unreasonable pressure that we have to win every-single-point.  Or even that we have to win the whole match.

Just the first set.

“The pleasure is in the pursuit not the possession.” I keep it posted up, I believe it more and more.

Maybe you can’t really make 80 sales calls today. Can you minimum, make one?

Maybe you can’t seal 65 years with your lover, but can you have one great date this Friday, one where you don’t talk about the kids?

🆗 maybe you can’t even have one great date 🙄 Let the relationship go, let the tournament go. Just play one great moment, make them laugh. And the moment is over.

Who knows if you’ll get accepted to your stretch school, but can you crush this one test tomorrow?

Who knows if you’ll win the pickleball tournament, but can you lose yourself entirely in the throes of this one point?

There’s no guarantee, no money back on the tournament of today.

So, what moment will you win?

Mind 🤯 

Over the last 25 years, tennis match retirements (withdrawing due to injury) have increased by 25 % on the men’s circuit and 50 % on the women’s, reflecting higher physical and mental demands.

🎾 One of my favorite tennis players is Roger Federer. Yours too?

Yes he has withdrawn from tournaments due to injury, he never once withdrew mid-match 💫 

Soul ⚡️ 

🎶 Forgetting all I'm lacking, completely incomplete
I'll take your invitation, you take all of me now

I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held on to
I'm standing here until you make me move

I'm hanging by a moment here with you
I'm living for the only thing I know

I'm running and not quite sure where to go
And I don't know what I'm diving into

Just hanging by a moment here with you 🎵 

— Song, Hanging By a Moment, by Lifehouse

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