My moms belief: “I hate tiebreakers in tennis”

About a month and a half ago my mom came to visit me in Phoenix.

We had a grand time making candles at Candle Chemistry and playing putt putt at Puttshack.

If you read my newsletter about Lifetime my Mom is the one that pushed me to join. So really the consistency of this newsletter is all because of her.

My Mother and I both love to read so as we were listening to the Tim Ferriss podcast he recommended a book that he said had a profound impact on his life and sounded interesting. So we bought it and listened to it together as we carted around the city.

As we were reading, the author mentioned how he had a friend that played tennis and ‘hated tiebreakers,’ my Mom chimed in and said, oh my god, so do I! I always lose them.

We continued to listen and the author goes on to explain how he told his friend to say, “I love tie breakers…” …25 times, every day.

The author's friend begrudgingly said, fine, he will, but didn’t believe it would work.

Sure enough, the author's friend called him and told him how he won his last tie breaker. But didn’t want to give the author the credit. …Until he kept winning them, and winning them, and winning them.

This is a specific affirmation. Specific affirmations work because they give your brain something to focus on directly. They reframe the core issue.

Unlike general affirmations such as, “I win all my tennis games.” Your brain has a tough time with that because A) it doesn’t believe it, and B) there’s too many factors.

But when you boil it down, and don’t connect it to an outcome, your brain can play with the belief, believe it, and then create the outcome you’re looking for.

So back to mom.

I immediately told her that she was going to start doing this strategy every day for the next few weeks.

What she didn’t know is that I would text her every day reminding her.

I then proceeded to send her a text every day reminding her to say, “I love tie breakers 25 times.” She would do it. Although I could tell, kind of half heartedly.

…until one day I got a text from her.

Mom: “You won’t believe it!?”

ME: “What?” (I had a feeling what was coming next)

Mom: “I won my tiebreaker!!! I love tie breakers!!”

Me: “hahaha No fucking way! That’s awesome!”

She now actually believed that she loved tiebreakers… which compounded the effects.

I don’t know, but I don’t think she has lost a tie breakers since, she texts me every time she wins!

So, what’s your hang up point, what do you hate, that you could start to love?

Do you hate taking out the trash? Now you love doing it. It makes the significant other happy.

Do you hate taking a loss in an investment? Now you love losses, they teach you valuable lessons.

Do you hate making sales calls? Now you love doing them.

If you want help making more clear decisions and tracking your habits I’ve created a set of tools to help you with just that!

The habit tracker alone is worth well over 50 dollars, but I’ve chosen to sell all my tools for $10 because I want them to be accessible to everyone!

Checkout this other great newsletter on mindset!