Ever since Michigan State University head football coach Mark Dantonio suffered a heart attack after his teams thrilling overtime victory against Notre Dame, there have been numerous articles written about how coaches need to take better care of themselves. This is undoubtedly true, but the focus in these articles is always on an exercise regimen, watching their diet and getting enough rest. Of course all of the above are important concerns. The problem is that they are overlooking what I consider to be the most important part of the equation: How a coach handles the stress that comes with the job internally.

Vision is one of the most underrated traits in sports, as well as in life and business. I do not just mean your eyesight when I speak of vision (although that is hugely important as well) I mean the vision in your mind.

When our ego gets out of control it works like blinders that stand in the way of our seeing what we need to see. Imagine a quarterback that has blinders on which block his peripheral vision. Will he see the field better or worse? Will he make more or less plays? Will he get sacked more or less often? The answers to all of the above are obvious. Blinders inhibit our personal learning and growth. Yet many players/people never reach their true potential because they get in their own way and block their own progress in this way. They are no different than the teenager who “knows all there is to know” already. Unfortunately, the player or person that let’s this happen has to learn the hard way and unlike the teenager they do not have their whole life in front of them to recover from this avoidable mistake. Sadly most players and people that get to this point do not recover and have no one but themselves to blame.

As I watched the semifinal match last weekend between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic an eerie thought kept creeping into my head. I could not escape the notion that Federer would have breezed through his semifinal match against Djokovic, were it not for the fact that Rafael Nadal was awaiting him in the final.

For over a year I have noticed something different in Federer when faced with the prospect of playing Nadal. I suspect that Federer no longer believes he can beat Nadal and since you cannot outperform your belief in yourself, a negative outcome would be inevitable for him.