Tomoko's Blog: Achieving a goal

I love sports- both playing and watching. I don't do much nowadays, but I still love them. My favorite is absolutely tennis. I played it from the age 12 to 22 myself. I follow men's tennis in particular. It is so speedy, energetic and exciting!

There is so much to learn from sports - persistence, the importance of a team work, concentration, the ability to stay in present. etc.

Yesterday, I was watching the French Open tennis men's final (I'm a BIG fan of Rafael Nadal. :) He is a fighter! He never gives up and has full of life, and I love it!). It was an incredible game as usual - the matches between Nadal and Federer always are. So many miracle shots from both players! They made the entire crowd all over the world go, "Ohhh!!!" "Ahhh!!!" Just incredible!!!

Now what most people tend to forget is the fact that they both practiced 1,000 + hours to make the one miracle shot!

This society promotes as if working hard or trying hard to achieve something or to get better at something is "uncool." Is it really? I don't think so. In fact, I think it is a beautiful thing. :)

I used to think, "Oh, I wish I could do this" or "I could do that," but then thought, "Well, I don't have the talent."

Talent? What is talent?

I've learned that we can make up for most of what is called "talent" by a lot of practice. By practicing a lot, one can get better at doing most anything. :)

When I was in an elementary school, we played this sport called "dodge ball." At that time, I just couldn't catch the fast ball coming toward me, so my only solution was to avoid it. Soon other kids realized I couldn't catch the ball, so I became the target!

One day, I was sick and tired of the pain from being hit by the ball (obviously, they did a really good job hitting me!), I decided, "That's it! I'm going to be able to catch a ball, no matter how fast." And every day after school, I practiced catching a ball. I just went to a underground parking lot. I stood petty close to the wall, hit the ball really hard to it and practiced catching the ball bounced back at me. And as I got better at it, I shorten the distance between the wall and myself little by little. I did it EVERY DAY.

In less than a week, the distance between the wall and me was so close. I still hit the ball VERY hard to the wall, the ball bounced back SO hard at me and I was still able to catch it. Now I was confident. :)

My debut as "new me" was just fantastic! :) Since the point, I was one of the strongest players in our dodge ball game! I felt great on the fact that I overcame something and became great at it.

So I know this theory is true. :)

Hope you can also overcome whatever barriers that you have in order to achieve your goal and achieve it. :)

Have a great day!