Second Most Valuable Skill

Roger Federer

The goat of tennis

Played 1526 singles matches over his career

He won a staggering 80% of those matches

But

How many points did he win?

You might assume something around 80%?

Nope

Roger won 80% of his matches

By winning 54% of the points

That means

Almost every second point he ever played over his career

He lost

He experienced a loss

A mistake, error, fumble, fall, stuff up

Almost every minute he ever played.

There is a crucial skillset here

How one treats themselves when they mess up

Imagine

If at any moment

During those 46% of lost points

Roger beat himself up

Blasted himself for making a mistake

For not being good enough

“Shoulding” himself to be better

Yep

Not likely he would be able to move on from the mistake

And go on to win the other 54% of points.

To be clear

Yes

The skill of playing the point is obviously incredibly valuable

But if the goat of tennis can win 80% of his matches over his career

After losing almost half of the points

This tells us

The ability to let go of the mistake and move onto the next moment

Is absolutely crucial to sustaining a career in performance.

Some say tennis is a game of forgetting

Giving everything to the ball that’s in front of you

Then letting go

And moving onto the next ball

I’d like to think acting is similar to

Giving everything to the moment in front of you

Then letting go

And moving onto the next moment, scene, day, tape or job.

I was working with an incredible artist last night

I watched them realise

“Ya know, Mike

It actually doesn’t take that long

For my body to re-orientate back to a place of being in the moment

I just gotta let it do it's thing”

Music to my ears

Let the body lead

Let it get back to place of doing what it knows

Let it get back to play

Playing each ball

Each moment

One at a time

Then move on

Hope this helps

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