Starting to Transform the Shame from Being a Professional Tennis Player

As they say – life is a daring adventure or nothing at all. On Saturday 12/1/19, I travelled to Melbourne and a flood of memories came back to me from my tennis career. I decided to share what I was feeling on my social media (and have transitioned it to my website) and this is what I wrote after the introduction above…

 

Transforming the Shame from Being a Professional Tennis Player

“You see – it’s 25 years since I reached the 3rd of the Australian Open Singles event, played on Centre court and was featured on A Current Affair (yes I was 21). And I have been to the Open once from memory after I finished playing in 1997 (it may have been twice, however didn’t check – I went to receive my Elite Coaching Course graduation, which co-incided with the coaching conference and why I am not sure if it’s once or twice).

 I didn’t realise until this past week how much shame I have carried with me around my tennis career. I’ve realised now how much I had taken on board other peoples stuff (i.e their opinions, beliefs etc.) and deep within me, had the belief that I was a mistake and a bad person because I did not live up to other people’s expectations of me around tennis.

Trust me, I did my best and I now know I am not a mistake or a bad person for not living up to your expectations (thanks to the support of my coach) and I can finally be proud of what I did as a tennis player ?

I Did My Best with What I Had at the Time…

Why do I share this with you?

Because these past few weeks I’ve been hearing the judgments come up around the performance of players. Those judgements are yours and rarely do they have anything to do with the player. I can only imagine the players are doing their best as I did. We really never know what is going on in another person’s life, unless we are privileged enough to be apart of it. 

I also share this as I know shame is a debilitating emotion for many and it cannot live in the light – it only lives in the dark ❤️

I’m super grateful I’ve been able to learn the difference between my stuff, other people’s stuff and the bigger picture. As well as what is my responsibility (and other people’s). And I really hope other athletes can as well and have the courage to work through to the core of their own story and be who they are.

Remember you are a human being, first and foremost and not a machine. Being an athlete comes down the list ?❤️”

Following are a couple of photos from that day back in 1994 🙂

Over to You…

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to share them below.

If you are ready to reclaim your courage and take the next step towards freedom and opening your heart, you are welcome to join our Sport Life Flow CommUnity Toolkit?