How Serena Williams Changed Her Mindset and Broke an All-Time Record
In Greek mythology, the Phoenix is a bird mired in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. It has come to represent rejuvenation and resurrection in our modern culture, showing that the end is really only the beginning. In this same vein, failure at the height of Serena Williams’ career led her to become a different, more dominant player.
Serena Williams has well established herself as one of the premier athletes in the history of sports. Her reign of dominance in the sport of tennis places her in a realm achieved by few others in the annals of competitive sports. A huge reason for this dominance can be attributed not only to her superior athletic ability, but also because of her strong mental attitude. In a recent interview, Serena gives excellent insight into her ability to adapt and evolve her mindset after immense success earlier in her career when she was already considered one of the top players of all-time.
In 2014, as she approached the modern record in women’s tennis of winning 18 major tournaments, set by Chris Evert and Martina Narartolova, Serena sat on 17 major wins for her career, and the brink of history. Then came the plateau. “I’ve got to get to 18” she repeatedly told herself. The stress she was putting on herself caused her to struggle to compete, despite being ranked the №1 player in the world. Serena put so much pressure on herself that she lost 3 Grand Slams in a row in really bad fashion. “I put too much pressure on myself”, she later conceded.
Then her coach stepped in and challenged her to shift her mindset. “Why are you trying to get to 18 major wins? Your goal should be 30 or 40. 18 is such a low goal”. In this one conversation, her coach shifted Serena’s entire vision for what she wanted and thought was possible in her tennis career. Serena later reflected, “To me, it made so much sense. I set my goal for what was in sight. I think that subconsciously, a lot of people set their goal on what is already there. Why not reach for a higher goal? I really learned from that. Why would I reach for that when there’s more”.
This breakthrough for Serena shifted both her mindset, and her entire approach to the game of tennis. Once she stopped focusing on the short term and relaxed, it really changed the game for her and became more fun. “Something released, and I totally relaxed and I won four in a row” Serena says as she casually acknowledges her second “Serena Slam” (she is one of five players in the history of women’s tennis to hold all four Grand Slam titles at once). “I put a lot of pressure on myself. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take three steps forward” says Williams.
This is such an excellent example of growth mindset from one of the premier athletes of this generation. Despite being the top-ranked player in the world, she realized that failing was a good thing. “Sometimes you don’t know how to be better if you are always doing it right. You can just kinda stay in this plane. Failing allows you to fall and rise up higher than you could if you didn’t fail,” acknowledges Serena. This failure allowed her to step back and gave her a huge opportunity to grow into an even better player. The shift in her mindset made her a different player as well. Once she put herself in the mindset that she was chasing 30 or 40 major titles, she took on that identity. She was a different player, and all because she had experienced failure at the brink of an all-time record.
It must be an incredible awakening for an elite athlete or performer to come to the sudden realization that everything you did to get you to the top of your profession will not be adequate to take you beyond the summit. This is where the uncertainty lies, and all top performers must go there to become a new version of themselves and take their game to another level. Serena rose from her 2014 failures like a Phoenix, playing in the Finals in eight of the next ten Grand Slam Tournaments (winning 6 titles), and cementing her legacy as the greatest tennis player ever.
Despite the recent success, Serena knows this chapter of her career started with failure, and she is still not done improving. “Every time I lose I feel I get 10x better”. With an attitude like that, Serena Williams signals to the tennis world that regardless if she is winning or losing, she will not stay the same. Her mindset won’t allow it.
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