22 Jan Happiness lessons from…the Australian Open Tennis
I don’t usually watch much tennis (it’s not really my sport) but last night I found myself watching Roger Federer (arguably the best player in the world over the last decade or so (and probably one of the best ever) cruise to a pretty easy victory in the second round of the Australian Open Tennis Championship.
Now as noted, I’m not really much of a tennis fan but I do admire elite athletes and top sportsman and I am always looking for tips and ideas that I can apply in my positive psychology coaching so I can help even more people find happiness. I guess my thinking is that if someone does something that helps him/her achieve excellence in one area (e.g. tennis) then maybe something similar might help me (and/or my clients) achieve excellence in another area (e.g. happiness and living a good life).
Anyway, I think you probably get the idea…
…so I was watching Federer and I noted that although he won the match pretty convincingly, his opponent was also an exceptional athlete and a very good tennis player. Quite often, this guy hit shots just as good as Federer’s and quite often, he achieved feats of athleticism as good as Federer.
But what I noticed after a while is that although this other guy could hit some great shots, once, twice or even three of four times in a rally, where Federer really excelled was hitting great shots eight, nine and even ten more times within a rally or game.
So what’s the lesson here? How’s this relevant to positive psychology and finding happiness?
Well, I’ve been saying for quite a few years now that achieving happiness requires nothing more than practicing a few simple disciplines every day. Many people do “the right” thing (to boost their happiness) once or twice or occassionally, but how many of us do the right things all day every day?
Now I do know it’s important to be realistic, and no-one is perfect and no-one will be happy all the time, but if we could all just find a way to do what we need to do more consistently and more regularly then I’m sure we’d all also enjoy much more happiness in our lives!
PS: With this in mind, you might like to check out the following resources (most of which are free):
- Happiness Increasing Techniques – here
- Daily Happiness Checklist – here
- Weekly Happiness Action Plan – here
- And all our other free resources – here
PPS: if you think you could benefit from some help achieving more happiness check out our coaching options (here), email us at info @ thehappinessinstitute.com or just call on 02 9221 3306.