CHAPTER THREE

Stress Of Change

Change is now one of the major stresses for most of us in this day and age. One of our greatest disadvantages as a people and as a society is our inability to handle change. Much of this is simply because we're not inherently capable of handling the rapid changes that are being literally shoved down our throats. In the past, change was gradual. A person could maybe expect two or three major changes in a lifetime. Today, we are forced to handle major changes constantly. Just as the neck of the giraffe over time evolved to grow for its survival, we are also going to have to evolve to handle rapid change.

Oftentimes when I think about change, I'm reminded of the great tennis star Arthur Ashe and the 1975 Wimbledon Championship. To truly appreciate this story, it needs to be stated that in 1975 Arthur Ashe was at the twilight of his tennis career. He had just beat Bjorn Borg in the semifinals and was headed to the Wimbledon Championship where he was to face a young, brash, hard-hitting, masterful backhander by the name of Jimmy Connors. Connors had just demolished Roscoe Tanner in the semifinals.

As the story goes, it was said that Arthur, who'd played Roscoe many times in his career, winning some and losing some, approached him later that evening. "Roscoe, how can I beat this kid?" Roscoe was slow in his response to Arthur; not because he was reluctant or concealing vital information. He, along with millions of other tennis buffs throughout the world, honestly didn't know the answer. "Whatever you do," Roscoe muttered, "forget trying to slug it out with Jimmy. He'll use the pace of your hardest shots to send the ball back even harder, and dictate the tempo of the game."

This certainly had to be disappointing news for Arthur. Not too long ago, he was feared for his thunderous serve and accurate backhand, but not so much anymore. What was probably even more disappointing to Arthur was all the whispering going on behind his back. Arthur was an 11-2 underdog. Connors had beat him in three previous matches before, and the elite tennis community at Wimbledon was saying he was invincible. Jimmy Connors, up to this point, had played impeccable tennis, mowing over his opponents like a Lawn Boy. Arthur, on the other hand, had struggled through a couple of his matches. No one gave him even the slightest chance of winning against Jimmy Connors. It was said that some of the sportswriters and commentators were so convinced that Connors would win, they had already begun writing the headline and lead to their stories for the next day.

I can only imagine how some of them might have read: "Jimmy Connors Douses A Hot Ashe!" "Connors Thumps Out Ashe!" "Jimmy Connors Puts Out A Smoldering Hot Ashe!!!" Arthur Ashe found himself now, at this particular time in his life, in the biggest dilemma of his life. He could do one of two things. He could either continue to do things as he always had or he could make major adjustments. He could continue doing those things that had become most comfortable to him (and I might add, up to this point very successful), or he could change. To the ordinary person, the thought of changing his or her game in the biggest match of his or her life, in the eleventh hour, would be absolutely unheard of, not even a chance. But Arthur Ashe was far from ordinary.