“I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”
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Andre Agassi never had a choice to play tennis.
His father forced him to practice tennis intensely, from age seven, to mold him into the world’s #1 player. His father succeeded.
But Andre hated tennis his entire career.
He recounts this in his phenomenal autobiography Open. Despite his overwhelming success, during his career he never felt like the director of his own life. His drive to win was real, but it was also all he knew. Involuntarily thrown into the deep end and made to swim, he became so incredibly good that he created a current from which he couldn’t escape.
He didn’t steer his life, unconscious momentum did.
Agassi’s story is obviously an outlier. But it raises a fascinating question: what momentum are your currently riding from past decisions? Are those past decisions ones you are glad you made? Did you make them intentionally? Did you even make them?
Perhaps it’s the major you chose in college, the place you chose to live, or even a relationship.
Just be sure you are living out of conscious, not rusty, momentum.
JB
