The Inner Game of 1099

I'm reading a cool book called The Inner Game of Tennis.

The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance

The author, Timothy Gallwey is a professional tennis coach who wrote this book more as a philosophical guide to performance, using the medium of tennis.

In the book, he talks about letting go of judgements. A judgement is "saying that some events within your experience are good and you like them, and other events in your experience are bad and you don’t like them."

In tennis, when players start judging their own performance, instead of simply neutrally observing them, they get in their own head. They start overthinking things and screwing up. They get the "yips."

Do it long enough and you just give up because you think of yourself a lousy tennis player.

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In the 1099 world, it's easy to get in your own head.

You send an awkward e-mail and think you're a bad communicator.

You left money on the table and think you're a poor negotiator.

Or you just get so overwhelmed by the thought of all the future admin work like forming an LLC and getting insurance that you never even get started, and then you think of yourself as "lazy" or "unmotivated," perpetuating a cycle of negative self-talk.

The only way to practice letting go of self judgement, at least in my case, is to observe the judgement, and keep taking action anyway.

Yes, you will "screw up," but that is itself a judgement. Notice that you did something, it didn't get the result you want, and adapt.

"Be clear about this: letting go of judgments does not mean ignoring errors. It simply means seeing events as they are and not adding anything to them."

Act, observe, adapt, repeat.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.