In 1988, Andre Agassi and Boris Becker faced off for the first time, kicking off what would become one of tennis’s great rivalries.
Agassi and Becker were two of the top players in the world, finishing the year ranked No. 3 and 4 in the world respectively. But despite Agassi’s superior ranking, in this first meeting between the two stars, it was Becker coming out on top.
“His serve was something the game had never seen before,” Agassi later recalled. On the strength of that serve, Becker would defeat Agassi in two subsequent matches in 1989, leapfrogging Agassi to take the No. 2 spot on the rankings in the process.
Frustrated, and knowing that the route to victory at any major tournament was likely to lead through Becker, Agassi got to work. He pored through footage of Becker, analyzing his playing style in search of the slightest knick in his armour. And then, after countless hours watching tape, Agassi found it.
“I started to realize he had this weird tick with his tongue,” Agassi said. “He would go into his rocking motion, and just as he was about to toss the ball, he would stick his tongue out. And it would either be right in the middle of his lip, or it’d be to the left corner of his lip.
“If he put his tongue in the middle of his lip, he was either serving up the middle or to the body. But if he put it to the side, he was going to serve out wide.”
This insight proved decisive, as Agassi went on to win ten of their next eleven matches, including one en route to the Wimbledon championship in 1992.
In the end, recalled Agassi, “the hardest part wasn’t returning the serve, but not letting him know that I knew [about the tell].”
Years after they’d both retired, Agassi shared his bit of intel with Becker over a pint at Oktoberfest. A shocked Becker replied, “I used to go home and tell my wife, ‘It’s like he reads my mind.’ Little did I know you were just reading my tongue.”
Studying Your Opponent
The practice of reviewing game tape–both of yourself and your opponent–is a given at elite-level sports. While you might not always discover a tell as obvious as Boris Becker’s, there’s a lot to be learned by studying your opponent’s style.
By knowing their style, you can anticipate their next moves. Then, you can either navigate around them or prepare yourself in advance. Get to know their style well enough and it might appear as though you’re reading their mind. Compared to facing off without that knowledge, this gives you a significant advantage when facing any opponent.
As creators, this opponent is not another person, but ourselves.
Every day, our desire to make work that matters faces off against Resistance. This Resistance might come in many forms, from impostor syndrome to perfectionism, impatience to distraction, the lure of shiny objects to the endless chatter of your inner critic as you try to do the work.
The problem when facing down Resistance is that there’s an asymmetry of knowledge. Resistance has studied our tape and knows just when and where to place the dagger for the most devastating effect. It knows exactly how to cow us, to strike fear, and to sow doubt. All the while, we might not even be aware of its existence, in the worst cases, taking its whisperings as truth. But this doesn’t have to be the case.
Much like an elite athlete, we can choose to study our Resistance, learn its style, and begin to predict its moves. When we understand its moves, we can begin to dance with Resistance, rather than be pummelled by it, turning our opponent into our partner. Resistance can be a powerful indicator that we’re onto something worth pursuing, after all, and it’s from this dance that our best work emerges. But before we can join the dance, we must first learn to read our partner.
Learning To Read Resistance
The first step in learning to read Resistance is to acknowledge its existence. This in itself can be a massive breakthrough, as it means the voice in your head undermining your every creative effort is not, in fact, the voice of truth.
While Resistance is certainly real, the things it tells us are not. Its job is to protect us and in the process of doing so, it’s willing to go to great lengths. This includes doing everything within its power to keep us from shipping our work, opening ourselves up to criticism and failure. The particular way Resistance achieves this varies for each of us. The second step of learning its style, then, is recognizing the specific tricks and vocabulary it uses against you.
Start by identifying the traps that keep you from doing (and shipping) your most important creative work. Perfectionism, procrastination, distraction, and imposter syndrome are all common shapes Resistance can take, but there are many others. If you’re serious about beating Resistance, you might even make a list of its tactics and post it beside your desk as a reminder.
With your list in place, you can keep a vigilant eye out for Resistance, spotting it before it has a chance to derail you. The going might be slow at first, but recognizing, resisting, skirting and dancing with Resistance is a muscle that can be strengthened with use.
When a notification flies across your screen and you’re tempted to set your work aside and click on it, recognize Resistance. Build the muscle by ignoring it and turning your attention back to your work.
When you feel your work isn’t ready and are tempted to tinker some more, recognize Resistance. Build the muscle by hitting “publish”. Then start on your next project.
When you feel like an imposter, like you have nothing to contribute, recognize Resistance. Build the muscle by sharing something publicly that will be useful to even just one other person.
Over time, as you learn Resistance’s style and build up the muscle of defending against it, Resistance will adapt and present new methods of sabotage. No matter, learn the new tricks, add them to your list, and continue the dance.
Resistance is an opponent we can never truly defeat. But if our goal is to create work that matters, we have no choice but to learn to dance with it.
We can choose to view each day either as a series of new opportunities for Resistance to derail us.
Or, we can choose to view each day as a series of new opportunities to strengthen our muscle to resist Resistance.
Explore how to navigate a creative life that matters
This article originally appeared in my weekly Listen Up Newsletter. Each issue is the product of a week of work, and contains something not available for sale.
A fresh perspective, a shot of encouragement when you need it most, and maybe even some genuine wisdom from time to time.
Each week, we explore a different facet of the question “How do we navigate the wilderness of creating work that matters?”
It’s something I’m proud to create and I’d be honoured to share it with you.
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