Going into the final of the Australian Women’s Open, Serena Williams was a raging hot favourite to win. She was quoted at unbackable odds and her opponent, Angelique Kerber, was given no chance. Everyone believed Serena would win.
That is everyone except Angelique (and possibly her coach and family)! She obviously believed she could do it!
And, of course the rest is history; Angelique outplayed Serena and earned the crown.
As the match finished I wondered whether this loss may be the beginning of the end of Serena’s domination of womens tennis. Now, of course, she may just have had a down night and will continue to dominate the women’s game (before this loss she’d only lost one match in umpteen matches over the past couple of years).
But her future opponents have discovered she is beatable. Until now many of them would have believed they had no chance against her… now they know she is fallible. Maybe they too can do the impossible.
It reminded me of the story of the four minute mile. It was the goal of runners around the world to break the four mintes but, until one day in May 1954 when Englishman Roger Bannister stormed home to run a tick under four minutes, it had never been achieved.
And the psychological barrier had been broken!
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In the next year or so the four minute mile barrier was broken (if memory serves me right) around 170 times.It took just one person to prove it was achievable and many could then follow.
Maybe Serena’s time has come.
At the risk of boring you to death, no one except me believed I could run a sub-three hour marathon. When I ran 2-58-52 they all told me they never believed I could do it. My response was, “I never believed that I couldn’t!”
Self belief is a wonderful thing!
Use it to achieve your goals just like Roger, Angelique and, yes, me!
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