Novak Djokovic is one of the greatest tennis players in the history of the sport. He has held the number-one ranking for 428 weeks during his career, has 1,163 tour-level wins and has won 24 major tournaments.
In a recent interview, Novak stated, “I have failed so many times in my career. You need to go through that experience, and this is very consistent across all the fields of life.” Why? Because, “You learn more from your failures than your wins.”
What interesting analysis from one of the great athletes in the world.
Other great athletes have come to the same realization. Michael Jordan famously said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Playing sports basically guarantees various failures: dropping the ball, letting your man get by you, making bad decisions, losing, and even making bad decisions, letting your emotions run wild, embarrassing yourself and exhibiting a bad attitude. Whatever it may be, athletes fail. But what makes a good sportsman is learning from failure. Playing sports is a practical training ground for dealing with life’s failures.
Basketball coach John Wooden once said, “The man who is afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success.”
If you think you don’t want to try a certain sport because you fear failing, recognize that the greatest athletes fail, and that is why they succeed.
Defeat Can Inspire Victory
For every 100 points Novak Djokovic has played, he has actually lost 48. Why does he win so many games, sets and matches then? Because he is good at learning from his errors when he loses a point and playing better in the crucial ones.
Players can learn a lot from their failures. The player who tries too hard to avoid failing—or who doesn’t try out at all—won’t take risks in the important points, and they will not grow. Learn to expect failing, and learn how to grow from it, because failing is part of the success process.
Many tennis players who play very careful tennis, and avoid taking risks because they are afraid of failing, will do things like look at their coach when a mistake is made, argue with the umpire, smash a racket or blame something other than themselves for the mistake.
Great players make mistakes, fail, take responsibility, recognize a weakness, address it and try to grow from it.
After losing to Rafael Nadal in the 2020 French Open Final, Djokovic stated, “In the greatest of defeats, you learn the greatest lessons as a tennis player, but as a person as well.” This mindset can apply to any great athlete for any sport and it applies directly to life. Djokovic went on to win the 2021 French Open Final.
Playing sports can be an emotional rollercoaster of mistakes and failures. This is a valuable reason why you should play. The difficulties you may go through from failing in sports are actually critical for your growth, not just as a participant in a game, but in life.
Build a Fire to Succeed
One thing common among all great athletes is a burning desire to become successful in their sport. One of the reasons athletes like Roger Federer and Tom Brady competed at high levels into their 40s is that they had a fire to continue gaining victories. They lost many times. But the inferno raging in them to continue playing and winning allowed them to embrace the failures and mistakes and forge a path of growth and development.
You should set goals in your sports development. Maybe you don’t consider yourself a great athlete. Does that mean you can’t get better? Does that mean you can’t set a goal to improve in the fundamentals? Maybe you set a small goal for yourself to make 10 layups in a row or score a certain number of points in a game. That is a good place to start. Setting attainable goals like this will help you develop a fire to succeed. The more goal-oriented you are, the greater your desire to succeed will be and when failure comes you’ve still got purpose to keep trying and getting better.
This mindset is critical to your spiritual growth. God expects victories from His spiritual athletes. If we fail to cultivate a spirit of victory then a failure will prevail as just that—a failure. An athlete who really wants to succeed in the long run will take a failure as an opportunity to learn and grow. Playing sports is a practical way to build this mindset.
Listen to the Coach
A coach has an important job in guiding an athlete or a team to success. This means evaluating and correcting mistakes that are made. If you have a coach, listen and take any correction they give you. This requires a humble, teachable mindset, but it will help you get on the right path to success.
A coach can provide valuable insight to your game, your weaknesses, your strengths. Your coach will help you examine your vulnerabilities and failures. He will provide an honest review of why you failed and how to improve. Ask questions and listen.
King David desired to hear from the supreme Coach of the universe. He said, “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart” (Psalm 26:2). This is such an important attitude to have. Playing sports can help you learn to take correction and evaluations in the bigger and more important areas of your life. If you make a mistake, then God is right there willing to help you learn and grow if you seek His coaching as David did.
David understood that he couldn’t even trust himself. He asked, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults” (Psalm 19:12). That is exactly why he sought out God’s advice and perspective. God has to reveal it.
If a coach tells you to square up with the basket, or drive with the legs more, then take that advice and use it to bounce back from your mistakes. God can work with the individual who has this mindset in life. Listen to God—the greatest coach.
Stay Consistent
Consistency is critical to gaining success after a failure. If you are practicing, make that practice consistent. Don’t let your emotions take charge of you when you fail one day. Stick to the routine and go back to the court or the gym and keep working at it and work harder.
Think about consistently improving on the large scale. One set back or failure may be miniscule in the long run if you are consistently improving and practicing. Don’t spend too much time replaying what you did wrong in your mind. Think more about how to improve.
The great athletes don’t stop practicing. If you fail, then keep practicing.
When playing a sport, there is always something to work on. Stay consistent with the basics. If you build on that foundation, then a failure will only fuel you to go back and practice more. If you develop a consistent mindset to your practice in a particular sport then that can carry over into your life. God is looking for consistency in our lives.
Christ told His disciples to “Continue in my word” (John 8:31). Don’t stop being a doer of God’s word. The Apostle Paul told the Corinthians brethren, “Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
He didn’t say you wouldn’t make mistakes or fail at times. But remain grounded in the Work of God. Stay consistent in the Work of God. Practice good prayer and study habits. Practice God’s way of love by consistently serving in the work.