PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION: Agassi Being Open

WATCH AND READ AN INCREDIBLE INTERVIEW WITH ANDRE AGASSI ON 60 MINUTES TALKING ABOUT HIS NEW BOOK: “OPEN.” CLICK: HERE

I always had respect for Andre Agassi.  He only truly landed on my radar in the late nineties. I noticed him because he was suddenly bald and not too tall, which of course gave me hope.  But my awareness of him peaked when I read about him in the Tony Robbins Book, Awaken the Giant Within.  In the book, Robbins writes about how Agassi had fallen from the top and had called upon Robbins, a world class personal transformation coach, to help him regain his edge.  Within a year, he had won another major and began one of the greatest recoveries in sports history.

But I learned so much more about Agassi tonight, watching him on 60 minutes.  And I related – oh did I relate – to so many things in my own personal life.  I related to how his immigrant father drove him with obsessive drive to over-excel at tennis.  I related to his near devastating embarassment because his trademark hair (when he had it — a wild, multi-colored mullet – acceptable, even fashionable in the 90’s) was falling out, and his fake extensions nearly dropped from his head during a finals match early in his career (I relate to being caught living a lie, not to being bald – sorry, folks).  And I related to how he hated tennis – HATED TENNIS (in other words, hated life) and turned to Crystal Meth – because it couldn’t possibly feel any worse. He felt, at the time, that he had no choice.  WE ALL FEEL THAT WAY AT THE TIME WE CHOOSE TO MAKE THAT MOVE THAT WE KNOW IS WRONG.

But what moved me deeply was to see this man pull tears of courage when being torn down publicly by his colleague in athetic greatness, Martina Navratalova, who shunned not only his drug use, but the way he kept it a secret.  Andre did nothing to defend himself or make his behavior acceptable.  But he looked straight in the camera and asked for compassion, to finally admit to the world that he was living a lie, and that all he could do now is come clean and help others (a dropout in 9th grade, he has built a school in a poor section of Las Vegas, his hometown, and raised millions for education). His tears were real.  And I believe, his mind was clear.

I loved watching him play a game of tennis with Steffi while Katie Couric watched (see above for link to 60 minutes interview).  Katie asked him, “Is this fun at all?”  Steffi supportingly repeated the question.  Andre allowed himself to squeeze out a boyish, “Yes, it’s fun.”

I don’t care what anyone thinks about the gifts life has thrown at this man – riches, fame and more… his life was loaded with an abundance of suffering.  Tennis was not an option.  The weight of generations fell upon his shoulders to succeed and save his family.  How is a boy in that situation supposed to know anything else other than to hit that ball as hard as he could, again and again and again and again.

Here is a man coming into accountability with his soul.  Doing his work. This is what we coach people to do.  Look at your role in your relationships.  Look how you may be unaware of how you are hurting others.  Find compassion for yourself, but get inside the truth and swing at it like a tennis serve.  Look at the impact of your choices and make sense of the people who have hurt you.  This opens you to a new life, a new vision of yourself.  Agassi is now “Open” and his work has just begun.  Tennis was a lie that brought him to the truth, brought him Steffi Graf, a wife who understands him, and brought him to the path of becoming a humanitarian.

Did I mention he was undersized and bald?

I love this guy.

LEARN HOW YOUR RELATIONSHIPS ARE GIVING YOU THE CLUES TO BE TRULY OPEN WITH YOURSELF AND TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND.  JOIN OUR LIST AND RECEIVE OUR FREE 12 PAGE  REPORT TO BEGIN YOUR JOURNEY.  CLICK: HERE.