Is he going to play every point like that?

My favourite ad of all time is Rafa Nadal’s Nike ad where they show glimpses of Nadal’s entire career cut as a single point of a tennis match. Nadal covers every inch of the tennis court on different surfaces, in different competitions against different players and then ends up winning the point. And then the commentator goes “Wow, this guy is relentless, is he going to play every point like that?”.

Its a rhetorical question of course, Nadal did play every point across his entire career like that. Like it was his last point. Like his life depended on it. Would Nadal have achieved everything he achieved without doing that? Probably not. How important was this in everything he achieved? Definitely atleast makes the top three factors.

A lot of people are talented and have the potential to do great things. But very few people actually become a Nadal. In my opinion the difference is this: relentless consistency. Waking up every day and giving your best. Not settling for anything else. This shit is hard. And its probably because of multiple reasons. One is maybe not even recognising your talent and potential. If one doesnt even think they have the potential to become special then they are probably not going to put in the insane amount of hard work needed to nurture it. The other is that achieving greatness is super hard and there are way easier distractions all around you all the fucking time. So you got to want it really bad for some really strong reason so that you can say no to the other distractions.

So how do you achieve relentless consistency? Exposure to hard work and a strong work ethic and its benefits during your childhood definitely helps. Moreover a strong belief in self improvement through hardwork. Believing that you can always one up yourself. Beat your PR. Raise the bar for yourself. And doing that again and again and again. Eventually that becomes second nature. Actually doing something you love helps too. If you get no joy from what you are doing, obviously achieving relentless consistency becomes difficult. Someone who believes in your potential to achieve great things is important too. As a child its hard to bet on yourself, but if there is a third figure who does that becomes a game changer. And then if you embrace this process, enjoy your day to day and achieve relentless consistency then a side product is achieving greatness like Nadal did.