Masters Tennis

When there’s a complex situation that feels foreboding, you might need a manual, a coach and even a system to move forward.

Or, it’s possible you simply need someone to tell you, “you’ll figure it out.”

Frustration means you’re on the verge of a breakthrough.

It’s evidence of an internal recalibration,

a sign that your expectations have evolved,

and that the person you were yesterday is no longer good enough for the player you are trying to become.

Keep going—what feels like struggle is just the final step before an upgrade.

-Conor Casey

Kobe Bryant on having the courage to look like a fool:

“if I wanted to implement something new into my game, I’d see it and try incorporating it immediately. I wasn’t scared of missing, looking bad, or being embarrassed. That’s because I always kept the end result, the long game, in my mind.”

Anyhow, the older I get, the less impressed I become with originality. These days, I’m far more moved by authenticity. Attempts at originality can often feel forced and precious, but authenticity has quiet resonance that never fails to stir me.

Elizabeth Gilbert • Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear

The biggest shift we can make as we get older is expanding what we think is possible. Learning doesn’t stop at some arbitrary age; if anything, it speeds up.

There is a gutter filled with dead ideas and rotting biases like misogyny and racism and ageism running all along the side streets and alleyways of our culture. Get your mind out of it.

• Valerie Monroe