“Ego needs honors in order to be validated. Confidence, on the other hand, is able to wait and focus on the task at hand regardless of external recognition.” - Ryan Holiday, Ego Is The Enemy

I’m just lucky to be here. We are lucky to be here. We’re lucky to have challenges that push us forward, lucky to have ups and downs that bring us closer to the people in our lives.

Keep your head in the game in the present moment. Focus on making one good play and doing your part, moment by moment, until the competition ends.

“But no matter how mightily you might struggle, the world will believe in you, follow you, and allow themselves to be saved - If they know you to be honest, trustworthy, of good character and good faith.”

If you are one of the lucky ones to be playing in New York City right now trying to win three matches to earn a spot on the main draw of the US Open, good luck. What an exciting time in your life to have an opportunity to make a childhood dream come true.

Role models offer a practical wisdom. The closer the role models experience is to yours, the more practical advice you may find. No one can speak to a wounded veteran like another wounded veteran. No one can speak to a family that has cared for a desperately ill child like another family that has done the same.

To be humble is to recognize that one’s intellect, one’s physical strength, one’s wealth all pale when compared to the vastness, the complexity, the richness, the power, and the grandeur of the universe.

When you find yourself reflecting on someone’s positive example to guide your thinking and your actions and you begin to imitate them, then you have a role model.

“Be original. Be yourself. To be anything else is to be a coward. Don’t let the opinion of cowards influence what you think or do. The future depends on it.”

In times of upheaval, crisis, and turmoil, great leaders turn to humor as a source of strength for themselves and those that they lead.