In his autobiography Open, Andre Agassi describes the deadliest habit in tennis:
"Against bad players I press, which is the tennis term for not letting things flow. Pressing is one of the deadliest things you can do in tennis."
Pressing is trying too hard. Forcing the outcome. Agassi talked about how against weaker opponents, he'd tense up, over-hit, and lose to players he should have beaten easily. Not because they were better, but because he stopped trusting his own rhythm.
I've been thinking about this in relation to filmmaking and art in general.
Whenever I have an idea or work on a script I want to get exactly right, I press hard. Eight out of ten times, I don't like what I put down. It's when I just have fun — or simply try to get to the end of a script as fast as I can — and don't care how it turns out, that I find my flow. Eight out of ten times, I still don't like what I wrote. But that's what rewrites are for.
I don't think flow state is necessarily the absence of effort. Andre trained obsessively. But when it was game time, he had to let go.
I started wondering if this could apply to more than just sports or creativity. Lately, I've been asking myself where else I'm pressing, and whether it's important enough for me to give it that much energy.
Before I answer that, I guess the first question is: how do I know I'm pressing? I've started listening to my body for the answer. I look for where the energy is expressed. Is my heart rate up? Am I bouncing my leg? Is my jaw clenched, or am I chill and not feeling rushed? Most importantly:
Am I having fun?
A year and a half ago, I found that I was pressing on so many fronts. Most of the things I was engaged in had nothing to do with what I loved: cinema. It took a personal crisis that forced me to abandon all of those distractions to realize that I was running away from what I loved.
I have a theory that Andre Agassi pressed against these lesser players and lost because he feared success. I know that sounds stupid given that tennis players are all about rankings. But honestly, maybe he liked the fight to the top more than being at the top. Because how do you know what it's like there when all you know is getting there? That, then, is where the fear is.
I probably have the same fear. The only way I know to overcome it is to find joy in the everyday. Perhaps success is already in the being and doing — not the winning.
Press less. Flow more.
Subscribe below to get a monthly note from me — new work, new essays, and what's next.