Ten valuable lessons I learned while playing tennis. How it all started…

Tennis uses the language of life. Advantage, service, fault, break, love…Every match is a life in a miniature – Andree Agassi

Tennis has played a significant role in my life. My journey with tennis began when I was around 15 years old. I found myself captivated by tennis matches on TV. There’s something truly magical about this sport—once you start watching, it’s hard to look away. Unlike football or many other sports, tennis offers exhilarating action every few seconds, making it incredibly addictive, and you can easily find yourself engrossed for hours without noticing the time slip by.

As I grew older, I finally got the opportunity to play tennis a few times, and I quickly realized it was far more challenging than it appeared on screen. Skills like coordination, timing, and running suddenly became a real test. The court, which looked so small on TV, felt enormous and quite daunting in person. That’s when I understood that if I truly wanted to learn how to play, I needed to start training with a coach. Despite these challenges, I have remained a devoted fan of tennis all these years.

New beginnings often emerge from total chaos. The year 2017 was particularly turbulent for me. The company I had moved back to Poland for was on the verge of bankruptcy, and eventually, it was sold. I started a new position elsewhere, but somehow I felt out of place. To make matters worse, I ended a very abusive relationship, which added to my overall turmoil.

My new job required frequent travel, and I am a nervous flyer. To cope with the anxiety of flying, I follow certain rituals, yet I usually remain tense throughout the entire flight. During one of these flights, I realized that I felt nothing; I didn’t care about life anymore. At that moment, I thought that it wouldn’t matter to me even if we were to crash. That realization struck me hard—I had never felt that way before.

Once I returned home, I knew I needed to make immediate changes and find something to bring new energy and joy into my life. I wish people could always see that even in the darkest times, a new light is twinkling somewhere on the horizon. That very weekend, I found the number of a tennis coach that a friend had given me months earlier, and I texted him to see if he would take me on as a student. To my relief, he agreed, and the following week, I picked up a tennis racket for the first time in years. It was February 2018.

The new passion for tennis infused my life with energy, transforming everything. A few months after I began training, I changed jobs, started a new relationship, and eventually bought a house and started a family. Tennis is not just a hobby or a sport for me; it has become a passion that I credit for my fresh start.

As time went on, I realized that playing tennis taught me valuable lessons, which I would like to share with you.