What is the real game?
It is a game in which the heart is entertained.
The game in which you are entertained.
It is the game you will win.
— Maharaji, forward from The Inner Game of Tennis
Gallewey pries into some really important concepts like effort vs. getting lost in our head space. Just because we are putting elbow grease into something doesn't mean we need to worry over it. But letting go isn't always as easy as it should be.
And the idea that not putting forth any effort is a cop out. If we don't try at all, we aren't disappointed in ourselves when we fail. It can take courage to try at something. And it can be hard to swallow defeat. But with the help of books like The Inner Game of Tennis, we can arm ourselves with work arounds to deal with road blocks and be our best selves.
Chapter 8 really catches my fancy, when Gallwey goes into all the games we play; Fun-o, Good-o, Image-o...the why of it all. When we are in it for the right reasons, it can be a total game changer.