“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
-Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States
Courage. In Stoic philosophy, it is one of the four cardinal virtues (wisdom, temperance, and justice are the others). It’s that important. Striving for your potential depends on practicing courage. Living a meaningful and fulfilling life depends on it too. And as a competitor, you are frequently face-to-face with fear. In those moments, it’s okay to be scared, but it’s not okay to let that stop you (Holiday, 2021). That’s what Franklin D. Roosevelt was talking about when he stated that there is something else more important than fear.
Your performance and potential are on the line. Do you want fear to be the reason you didn’t perform your best or why you didn’t live a full life?
What Do You Fear?
Before you engage with courage as a virtue, you should contemplate your fear. What exactly are you afraid of? Take a moment to consider this question and write down your answers. It’s an important exercise in the development of self-awareness.
In general, athletes are afraid of making mistakes, losing, performing poorly, failing, and being evaluated by other people. These fears can lead to believing that you are a loser, choker, or failure. Of course, none of that is true.
Additionally, you may have some discomfort with doing things differently than other people. Most other players act and train like amateurs. They emphasize winning, ratings, and rankings over everything else. But true professionals do not concern themselves with those things. They focus on becoming the best player they can.
Your goal is to act and train like a professional, and to become the best player you can become. It takes courage to adopt the mindset of a professional. The pressure to conform to group standards can be very strong, and when you choose to follow a different path because you want to be better, others will judge and criticize you.
When you review the specific items you fear in competitive tennis, notice how many of those items are outcomes that you would prefer to avoid and are out of your control. Losing, mistakes, playing badly, being judged by others. These are all possible in tennis. But focusing on negative possibilities will only create more fear and promote avoidance behavior, such as playing not to lose or using a strategy of “just get it in.” Instead, you want to act courageously in the direction of what you want to do and want to create. Practicing courage is the route to confidence and self-efficacy.
To facilitate courage, take some time to reframe those outcomes that you fear. For example, mistakes, losses, and bad performances are how you learn and improve. They are going to happen, so view them as learning opportunities to help you perform better in the future. Remember, nothing truly terrible is going to occur because you lost a tennis match.
And as for what other people think of you; you can’t control that. When your emotions are based on what other people might be thinking about you, you are allowing outside forces to control your emotional life. The constant need to impress others will impede your best performances and only make you miserable.
The Courage to Compete
Competing and putting yourself on the line is in an act of courage. The outcome is uncertain; you could lose. It takes guts just to go into the arena to compete. However, now that you are in the arena, you don’t want to let your fears drive your actions. It’s time to have the courage to do what you can to produce the kind of performance that you want. It’s time to have the courage to become the great competitor who resides within you. These things are more important than the fear.
Despite that, being fearless is not the same as being courageous. Having no fear at all can lead to rash and reckless decisions because you may not consider the consequences of what you do. Or perhaps you feel no fear because there is no challenge.
Playing with no fear can cause you to act in ways that are counter to your desire to succeed. Instead of striving for a state of no fear, realize that fear is normal, and you want to embrace it. Embrace it through courage. Courage is doing what is right in the presence of fear and consequences. It is not an antidote to fear; it is how you respond to fear.
Play Tennis with Courage
When you play with courage, you choose to use your strengths and play to win. This is an authentic style of play that is unique to you, but at the same time, it is purposeful toward a positive result. The goal is to play your way no matter what the score is, and trust that good things will happen. Regardless of the result of the match, this authentic approach will make you a better competitor in the long run.
When some athletes hear the phrase “play with courage”, they interpret it to mean playing bigger, more aggressively, or beyond oneself. That is not what I’m suggesting. In fact, playing that way is not your authentic game, and will lead to rash and reckless decisions. The virtuous mean of courage is simply doing what needs to be done in the moment and not allowing fear to trick you into “playing not to lose.” This is especially important in pressure moments.
In this process, it can be helpful to remember that everything is practice, and to realize that playing with courage needs repetition too. By practicing in a positive and purposeful manner, you will develop confidence and experience, and you will be proud of yourself for acting in the right manner.
When you act with courage, you are on the path to fulfilling your purpose as a competitor to become the best that you can become. The next time you feel scared, know that it is a normal reaction, but don’t let that stop you from doing what you must do.
About the Author
Dr. Brian Lomax founded PerformanceXtra™ in 2009 with a mission to help athletes achieve their goals and perform at their best more consistently through a progression of philosophical perspectives and mental skills.
Reference
Holiday, R. (2021). Courage is calling: Fortune favors the brave. Portfolio/Penguin.