Some care only about winning. Some are amazingly tenacious about warding off defeat, but can’t win a match point if it’s offered to them.

Thus, there are two games involved in tennis: one the outer game played against the obstacles presented by an external opponent and played for one or more external prizes; the other, the Inner Game, played against internal mental and emotional obstacles for the reward of knowledge and expression of one’s true potential. It should be recognized that

or the world how great he is, but is simply involved in the exploration of his latent capacities. He directly and intimately experiences his own resources and thereby increases his self-knowledge.

It comes from being more independent—not necessarily more solitary, but more reliant on one’s own inner resources for stability.

But the trusting and loving parent lets the child perform his own actions, even to the extent of making mistakes, because he trusts the child to learn from them.

Maybe wisdom is not so much to come up with new answers as to recognize at a deeper level the profundity of the age-old answers. Some things don’t change. The need to trust oneself and grow in understanding of our true selves will never diminish. The need to let go of the lenses of “good–bad” judgment of ourselves and others will always be the door

In most lectures that I have given recently, I remind myself and the audience that even though I come from California, I don’t believe in self-improvement, and I certainly don’t want to improve them. Sometimes there is a stunned response. But I don’t think anyone’s Self 2 needs improvement from birth to death. It has always been fine. I, more than

Self 2’s needs come with a gentle but constant urging. A certain feeling of contentment attends a person whenever he or she is acting in sync with this self. The fundamental issue is what kind of priority are we giving the demands of Self 2 in relation to all the external pressures? It is obvious that every individual must ask and answer this quest

Getting the clearest possible image of your desired outcomes is a most useful method for communicating with Self 2, especially when playing a match.