The Inner Game of Tennis.

By W. Timothy Gallway.

The book is about the useful mental attitudes to adopt while playing Tennis. The book has made it's rounds in other circles as it's principles can be applied to any task.

Ideas from the book...

When learning, or performing any task, don't judge yourself. Neutrally observe yourself performing the task. Form a picture in your mind of what success looks like. Then practice. The idea is that a picture is worth a thousand words. For success, hundreds of things must go right. Communicating all of them is very error prone-- you can't possible keep all of the success criteria in your mind. And if you focus on improving one area, it may be at the detriment of others. Envision success and observe yourself practicing.

Judging yourself is not effective. We learn by making mistakes-- we learn like a toddler. It is pointless to beating yourself up, or judging yourself as bad when you make a mistake. You made a mistake. You still have more to learn. Get on with the practice.

The book also has an interesting take on competition. Competition can drive us and challenge us, yet if we use it to judge ourselves, it's unhealthy. We are not better people because we win a game of tennis. Weither you win or lose, you are still the same person.

But, competition can drive us to improve ourselves. Only the best competitors can push us to our limits and push us to improve.