Here is a story from Tim Gallwey about a lesson learned from a tennis match long before The Inner Game was conceived. The story is quoted from Linn’s blog on animal behavior.
“I remember the time I first won a tennis match against my father,” says Tim Gallwey, author of the classic book The Inner Game of Tennis. Gallwey’s father had promised him a new racket if he won. Gallwey was 13 at the time, and had been playing in state tournaments. During the match, he was torn between wanting to win a new racket and not wanting to beat his father. When he won, he felt regret and compassion for his dad, who’d just been defeated by his own son, but was also elated by victory, glowing with a sense that his abilities had reached a new height. “That sense of self-worth is very precious,” says Gallwey.