Resilience – a tale of attitude

What is resilience?

Liam Broady and I had a meteoric rise and in only our 3rd month together and the 3rd ATP Challenger of his fledgling pro career back in 2014, in Charlottesville, Virginia, he lost in the final. It was hard to imagine what would happen. Since then, he made six more finals and lost them all. 

And finally, in September 2021, 7 years later, he won his first challenger. This is what resilience is all about. We all think that when we come close to success that we are ready, when in reality we are close but not quite ready. If I look back at all the finals he played, he wasn't favoured in any of them. Definitely, a couple of them, he could have won, but in hindsight he just wasn't quite good enough and would have needed a little luck to come through. 

Disappointment 

In Biel, Switzerland he went in as the favourite and very calmly executed his game and the level that he  was now playing at was good enough to win the final, and so he did. Resilience is a strange thing, because so much of it relies on getting up and going again after disappointment. Importantly, it's the way that you get up and go again. I’ve known a lot of people who are resilient and keep going at something that they're trying to achieve, but their attitude is off, experiencing some or several of these emotions such as feeling sorry for themselves, constantly frustrated, wracked with doubt, riddled with jealousy and constant comparison whilst trying to think about being resilient. They get angry whilst working at their skills, trying to get things right, never twigging that the attitude you have is part of resilience and essential. 

 In my opinion, after disappointment, you may have a couple of hours of disappointment but then you go again, and you need to do it happily. When you go about your work happily, there is a greater chance that you learn faster. 

And why not work at your craft with love and joy? 

If you're going to carry on, you always have a choice of attitude, in how you apply yourself. Remember that you chose your sport or job because you enjoyed doing it. 

If you can’t do it with a sense of enjoyment, what are you doing it for? 

If you know the right things to do and are on the right path, have faith in your process to just get better. Why be miserable while you're doing it? Put a smile on your face. It might not be every single day, of course, as we are human and there are tougher days where we've all fallen, days when we are tired or irritable. This is not about being a saint, or smiley all the time, happy every moment, because that's not reality. However, overall, you should be in a place where you enjoy what you do. 

Sense of enjoyment

When you must have resilience, when you must get up off the floor and go again, do it with a sense of enjoyment and a sense of belief that you will do the work, no matter how long it takes, and that you will get there. 

Do the right things

I have a saying that I put in my book, Locker Room Power—work hard, do the right things and good things will happen, you just never know when. Certainly, after that first final with Liam Broady seven years ago, little did either of us realise that it would take seven years before he won a title. 

But you know what, we just kept going, and now we're here and, of course, it would have been nice if it had happened earlier, but I equally believe that the struggle has prepared him for bigger things. 

A better journey

This is the journey that we're having with all the many lows and increasing highs, and who knows whether it's not ultimately a better journey?

 All the things that we learnt in overcoming hardships are part of life and it is a myth to believe that others have it easier without knowing their story because your career is only one area of your life and the best story of resilience you can live is your own! 

Signing off today, with a message of encouragement to go out there with happy resilience.

Locker Room Power

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Written by David Sammel