The Mental Game: Be Negative Rather Than Neutral

A tennis match is like going on a road trip. For example, you are traveling to your home, going north from Virginia to Massachusetts, and need to get off the highway to begin traveling east. Then, for some reason, you miss the exit. Argh!

How do you react when things are not going your way? Do you get angry? Mad? Do you keep going in the wrong direction? Or do you say, “No problem…I’ll just turn around when I get a chance?”

Your reaction will drive you to use either Neutral or Negative Motivation. And Negative Motivation that you can transform into a Positive gear is always a better choice than Neutral.

Why?

Going back to the road trip, the player with Neutral Motivation who misses the exit will keep going the wrong way. He doesn’t care. The player with Negative Motivation will get mad at take the next exit, go to a local gas station, ask for directions then get back on the road to drive to his final destination—home.

To win tennis matches, it is important to know how to transform negative to positive and make the necessary adjustments when things aren’t going well.