Rafael Nadal - The Maestro of Patience and Work Ethic

“Patience is not passive waiting. Patience is active acceptance of the process required to attain your goals and dreams.”

If somebody has to go through 7 months of layoff – normally there will always be people who will doubt your comeback and also doubts might creep in your mind about your own abilities. But not Rafael Nadal – the player who undoubtedly possess nerves of steel and has abundance of determination to offset any layoff effects.

Rafael Nadal went on to win his 22^nd ATP  Masters 1000 title after defeating Juan Martin Del Potro in three sets. Since his comeback, he has won 3 out of 4 titles that he has played and defeated 4 players in top 10.

Obviously when one looks at his comeback performance, it will be hard for people to realize that this same player was out for 7 months. It is the same Rafael Nadal who dominated tennis in 2010 with three grand slam titles and not surprisingly, at that time also he was coming off after an injury layoff.

In the past 7 months, if someone has followed Nadal on Facebook, they will know how much hard work has been put by the Spaniard for his comeback. Almost every day, a new picture was posted by Nadal and his team showing the rehab work that he was going through. Finally all those 7 months of hard work and effort paid off when he won his first hard court title at Indian Wells today since Tokyo' 2010.

One obviously wonders, what is about the great champions that separates them from the rest? Nadal is a great example because he showed to us today exactly what is that separates him from the rest. It’s the will and attitude to keep on fighting till the end. Every moment he steps on the court, he steps out with a new found hunger and gives his 100 percent in every point, no matter even if he is playing the match against a qualifier or the best. Layoffs, breaks, injuries  in the case of  champions like Nadal make them even more hungry and determined to focus on their games and return with a vengeance to make up for the time lost. 

Rafael Nadal is an example for all of us to see how a great work ethic and attitude can make you a great champion and probably the toughest competitor in your arena. Normal tendencies of human being is to retreat back in a depressive zone in the face of adversity and give up the hope of trying again. Champions like him on the other hand revel in these opportunities and make sure that they make full use of the setbacks to bounce back stronger and better than before.

One might not be an ardent fan of Nadal but his performance today showed to me how great a champion he is and how inspiring he can be. That’s what life is all about, forget about whom you like or not ,  look at the person and study his amazing qualities, the qualities that are very rare to find and truly speaking it won’t hurt to learn from a great champion.

Hats off to Rafael Nadal who showed to the world that it doesn't matter if you have been on or off the field for 7 months, what matters is whether you have the heart, attitude and work ethic to comeback stronger, healthier and better than your past.

I will end with this quote:

“He who has patience and work ethic can always end up with what he will”

For any questions, you can mail me at apekshaha@gmail.com

Never Lose Hope

Heathnsports4u.blogspot.com guest writer spot:

                                                  Never Lose Hope:

Recently, I approached Apeksha about writing a guest post for this site, because I believe that I have a story to tell that fits right in with the main theme of the site. I know that many of you are used to visiting for a daily quote to keep you motivated at work or while training, and too read about athleticism, sport, motivation, and the success that can be achieved when those three factors are brought together in rare perfect harmony.

My name's John and I started to write recently, after I broke my neck wrestling. During one of the final tournaments of my career and after competing for almost 4 years without a single major injury, I shattered my spine in a single split second.

It was the quote in the article: "Thank You Roger Federer - A Letter to the Champion." resonated especially deeply with me.

Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.

Orison Swett Marden said this, and I believe that this is very deeply and profoundly correct. Right now, I'm more proud of what I can achieve than I ever have been in my entire life, despite the fact that I'm the weakest that I have been since I was 8 years old. I'm proud because I am successfully by Orison Marden's definition, because I have progressed so much since my accident. 6 weeks ago, I was unable to move my toes, raise my arms, or feel my legs because of the trauma to my nervous system.

Now, I can ride a bicycle, lift weights, and even go to school as a full time student. I write about my progress on my blog, but I decided that simply talking about what I was doing wasn't enough. Now, I've made it my goal to be as supportive and informative to people with similar traumas to mine, and those who have suffered much more greatly than I have.

Just like Apeksha learned lessons from Roger Federer, I have learned from my injury. These lessons are:

When you are depressed, friends will help you,
When you are weak, you will find the drive to push on,
When you have lost hope, hope will find you,
Never doubt the strength of the human spirit.

It’s been an honor writing for the site. I'm a big fan and this has been really exciting for me.Please read and share this story with everyone who has lost hope and tell them about my journey and hopefully if they can learn one thing from my experience - Never lose hope.

You can Check John  and his recovery process at GoandDoit.wordpress.com  and in a few months to read all about his adventures:  running, biking, and at the same time hopefully motivating others to do the same!

For any comments, please mail me at apekshaha@gmail.com

Also: From Michael Jordan to Roger Federer:The inevitable truth of failure and struggle to become the best.
Five Sports Personalities who Failed at First.

From Michael Jordan to Roger Federer:The inevitable truth of failure and struggle to become the best.

Failure will happen if you will live your life. But how many times can a person fail?  It doesn’t matter how many times one fails, what MATTERS is how many times someone had the chance to quit and he didn’t, because winners make the most errors as they NEVER quit. Bearing that in mind, here are some prime examples of the above statement:

1. 4 Years of struggle, 4 Years of agonizing defeats against Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal before Novak Djokovic finally became World No. 1 in tennis. Conversely, 5 years of constant anguish, pain of living under the curse of not living up to his potential hung around his name and one life changing tragedy is what made Roger Federer the player he is today.

Djokovic and Federer at Wimbledon, 2012

2. Rejection from the high school basketball team, working hard daily to prove everyone wrong, becoming famous and then struggling and failing in the baseball minor League before appreciating what he had in reality is the story of the greatest basketball player ever- Michael Jordan.

One of the greatest basketball players of all time-Michael Jordan

3. From a ticket collector in Indian Railways to cycling around the town of Kharagpur to playing with tennis balls on cricket grounds, no one who had played with Mahendra Singh Dhoni even had the slightest idea that the lad from a small town of India will go on to become the best Indian Captain ever.

One of the finest captains of the India cricket team-M S Dhoni

4. Nobody gets up 6 am in the morning to play ball, But Ernie DiGregorio did and at twelve years of age,he started practicing 9-10 hours a day by himself. They could have cut his right hand off and he would have played one handed.That is why in-spite of his physical limitations: small height, chunky, slow with short arms, chubby fingers and no jumping ability – he still became NBA rookie of the year.

Ernie DiGregorio became rookie of the year despite physical limitations

There are many examples like this all around not only in the field of sports but everywhere with people who have struggled early in on their career before going on to become the best in their field. Contrary to the popular belief that the great people have had an easy life and how each and every one of us wished to be lucky enough like them and become great like our favorite sports person, the above examples are just to show the opposite. Nobody has an easy life, not even the greats themselves. They have struggles just like a normal human being, each and every day of their lives. Struggle is an inevitable part of life and it will be foolish to escape from its clutches because it is these struggles which can make you great or break you in pieces.

So what is it that separates these great ones from normal human beings? It is the ability to get back up again when they have failed. Life will knock us down but we can always choose whether or not to get up again and strive towards the goals with double intensity. Failure and Struggle will always be there in every journey. In the words of JK Rowling: “You might never fail on the scale I did. But it is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.”

IF you have any questions, you can mail me at apekshaha@gmail.com

This article was published at http://sports365blog.com/2013/02/25/from-m-s-dhoni-to-roger-federer/

Also: The greatness of the living legend called Roger Federer

The Iron Lady of India – Saina Nehwal