Love Means Nothing to a Tennis Player…

If you are a tennis player, you know that the word “love” is a scoring term that means “zero.” But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Love is NOT “zero,” love is EVERYTHING. Love is why we play our sport; it’s why we do WHAT we do. HOW productive we are, and how WELL we do our jobs. Love dictates whether we do well at school, or anything, for that matter. Love is the most powerful emotion.

My question to you is, what do you love? And DO you LOVE everything that you do? As an athlete, you need to love your sport, you need to love the process of getting better and you need to love just being able to play your sport. As a person, you need to love others, regardless of how they treat you. You need to love your job and your family.

When you have gratitude, you will be happy and when you are happy, you can be fulfilled. Anyone can be happy, but fulfillment is a whole ‘nother story. Fulfillment is when you help others and try to make the world a better place. Some of you may not love your job…about 50% of people don’t. But what if you could LEARN to love your job? Think of it this way…what if you didn’t even have a job? What if you made half as much money as you do now? Trust me, whatever your situation, I’m sure that there are many people in the world that are much worse off.

“Looking for love in all the wrong places.” Some people love money, others love power, many love winning. All of those things are temporary. When those things, go away, those people are miserable. There have been studies where people win the lottery and as early as one month later, they go back to their original state of happiness. In other words, if they were miserable BEFORE they won the lottery, they will become miserable again. If they were happy, before, they will become happy again. Love EVERY day; love your family, your friends, total strangers, the trees…and you will begin to change the world; at the very least, YOUR world.

Fulfillment is deep and meaningful. When you have fulfillment, nobody can take that away. It’s lasting. When teenagers voluteer, they reap the health benefits up to 60 years later. The reason being they appreciate the little things in life and as a result, have less stress and more happiness. So when you wake up in the morning, you can choose to love life or just exist and see what life brings you. Focus on the good things and you will get more of that.

Appreciate all the little things in life, help others out, contribute, and make a difference in the world. Mother Teresa said, “In this world, we can do no great things, only little things with great love.”

Homework: Do something today to make a difference. Enthusiasm is contagious…start an epidemic!