Managing Partner, Triad Consulting; Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School; Lecturer on Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
I love it when my all-time favorite sport, tennis, gives me-–a not-so-great tennis player–true life lessons that I can apply to my work, my clients, my students, my children and myself.???I was listening to my favorite podcast—cleverly and clearly named "The Tennis Podcast" (hey, you don’t have to wonder what they’re going to discuss…), and was blown away by a quote they offered by Peter Ayers, rising US star Emma Navarro’s coach.??When she was 14 and displaying perfectionistic tendencies (hard relate), he said to her: “You’re a perfectionist, most high achievers are, and it’s a good quality if it’s applied in a healthy, sustainable way.?I want you to strive to be perfect at bouncing back…(in tennis)” It stopped me in my tracks and I listened to it multiple times.?It’s so good. Sometimes the hardest conversations are the ones we have with ourselves. High achievers often give attention to the stumble; the mistake; the failure.?How much better would we be if we focused on the resilience; the bounceback; the learning? This is one I have already scribbled on a post-it note and added to the edge of my computer monitor.??To my fellow perfectionists, let’s strive to aim our perfection not just at the task at hand, but at the bouncing back. #resilience #perfectionism #tennis #difficultconversations #coaching #triadconsultinggroup