Everyone asks me how I stay calm on court and I think it's because I accepted who I am after overcoming low points in my life.
Coco GauffRead
What I do on court is great, but what really matters is what happens off court, the people who you affect.
Interpretation
True impact is measured by how we affect others beyond our professional achievements.
Coco Gauff emphasizes that while her performance in tennis is significant, the true measure of her life lies in her relationships and the positive influence she has on those around her. This perspective shifts the focus from personal success to the importance of community and the connections we create with others, highlighting that personal achievements should be viewed through the lens of their broader impact on society.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of community service.
Everyone asks me how I stay calm on court and I think it's because I accepted who I am after overcoming low points in my life.
The amount of people - and kids especially - that come up to me saying I inspire them is honestly better than any match I could win, just to know that I inspire another kid maybe to pick up a racquet or go through something they're facing at school.
There's so many people going through so many, like, uncomfortable situations. For me to be - I mean, obviously being nervous is natural - but for me to think that winning a tennis match or losing a tennis match is the end of the world, I think just kind of shows what kind of privilege I have.
Throughout my life, I was always the youngest to do things, which added hype that I didn't want. It added this pressure that I needed to do well fast.
It's important for us to know that our worth isn't defined by how well we do in our sport.
If you are choosing silence, you're choosing the side of the oppressor.
You can tell a workingman you like him, but he knows whether you are sincere or not. You can't make him believe you are interested in his welfare unless you are.
As the world is getting smaller, it becomes more and more important that we learn each other's dance moves, that we meet each other, we get to know each other, we are able to figure out a way to cross borders, to understand each other, to understand people's hopes and dreams, what makes them laugh and cry.
Stuff doesn't matter - boats, cars, fancy things don't matter. What matters, what will matter to me, is the love of the people around me, and did I take a chance? Did I seize an opportunity to do something for people with the talents that I was lucky enough to be given? Did I make a difference in the lives of people who needed me?
If a relationship is perfectly natural there will be a complete fusion of the happiness of both of you-owing to fellow-feeling and various other laws which govern our natures, this is, quite simply, the greatest happiness that can exist.
Out of the frying pan into the fire! What is marriage but prostitution to one man instead of many? No different!
So it is that we can seldom help anybody. Either we don't know what part to give or maybe we don't like to give any part of ourselves. Then, more often than not, the part that is needed is not wanted. And even more often, we do not have the part that is needed.
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