If you're a tennis fan, the last week has been a bit bananas in men's tennis.
If you're a fan, you know the major upsets I'm talking about.
If you're not a fan, let me just say that there have been the kind of upsets that haven't happened in close to 20 years.
After watching some of these upsets, I've noticed something about what it takes to battle giants.
Your giants may not be eyeing you down on a tennis court, but you're facing them nonetheless.
Before we explore the art of battling giants any further, let me tell you something about tennis.
In tennis there are four major tournaments in a calendar year. In these major tournaments, the format for the women's matches stays the same as all other non-major tournaments, but the format for the men's matches is longer.
This means if you're facing a giant—a player ranked in the top three let's say—on the men's side, you're entering into a marathon rather than a sprint.
In most major tennis tournaments, especially on the men's side, the giants usually win because they simply outlast their competition.
For a giant to win a major tournament on the men's side, they have to be consistently good for seven matches.
To battle a giant, you have to be unbelievably good for just one match.
This means you cannot afford to play it safe.
You have to be willing to sprint for an entire marathon.
You have to be vulnerable to the idea of losing, so that you can expose the parts of you that so desperately want to win.
You have to be willing to believe in the power of belief itself.
You have to be slippery enough to escape the thick strands of doubt coiling around you.
The art of battling giants is won by knowing they can be beaten.
