Novak Djokovic: "One of biggest lessons I've learnt about mental strength is that if you lose your focus, it's fine; accept it and then come back"

Novak Djokovic recently revealed that one of the most essential lessons he has learnt about mental strength is to accept circumstances where you lose focus and then bounce back from them.

Djokovic believes he has accomplished so much thanks to his mental power, which has been a crucial element along with his skills, hard work, and physical fitness. The Serb has notably demonstrated this numerous times when playing matches against Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

Self-proclaimed sports entrepreneur and creator Andrew Petcash recently shared a video on Twitter, where Novak Djokovic was seen explaining a few things about his views on mental focus.

In the video, Djokovic asserted that no matter what people say, it’s impossible for one's mind to be in the present. He compared it to a traveler who keeps moving all the time between the past and the future.

“Question of all questions is how do you stay here, in the present you know, here and now," he said. "And people have been always talking about you know forget about the past, don't think about the future, be in the present moment. I don't think that's possible."

"You know in reality because our mind is...I like to call it a traveler, you know it likes to travel past, present, future all the time. You know what if, what if scenarios, and on the court it's probably even more intense," he added.

The 23-time Slam champion further said that our minds have a tendency to perform things we don't want them to. One of the most essential lessons he has learned about mental power is that it is critical to accept loss of focus when it occurs and then recover from it without dwelling too much on the momentary lapse in concentration.

“I think it's also not possible to keep, you know when somebody tells you, you know be steady, don't think about this," he said. "If someone tells you don't think about it, almost certainly you will think about it."

"So what I think is well, probably one of biggest lessons I have learnt about, I guess, mental strength is that, you know if you lose your focus, if you, you know, you're not present, things start to go the wrong way for you, its fine. Accept it and then come back," he added.

Finally, Novak Djokovic emphasized that the time it takes to recover from an emotion is what distinguishes you from others.

“And I think that recovery of how long you stay in that emotion is what differentiates you from may be others, you know," he said. "So I think the recovery is more important than actually working hard to stay in the present because its almost impossible to stay all the time in present. You know we always think what's gonna happen, you know is this, am I going to win or not?”

Novak Djokovic wishes to represent his country in the 2023 Davis Cup

Day Fourteen: The Championships - Wimbledon 2023

Novak Djokovic intends to play for his home Country in the 2023 Davis Cup Finals. The Serbian team has been placed in Group C alongside Spain, the Czech Republic and South Korea. The event will take place in Valencia, Spain from September 12-17.

Novak Djokovic lamented not being able to play for Serbia in the Davis Cup in the previous season. Put in a tough group last year, his team couldn’t make it to the Finals, where he was supposed to join them.

“I didn't play last year - I felt guilty because I was hoping that the boys would get through the group in Valencia, so I could join them in Malaga. That format has been established for several years, we had a tough group last year," he stated.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion expressed his concern about missing out on the Davis Cup final this year due to tight schedule as well. Despite this, he has conveyed to his team’s coach that he will be there in the tournament representing Serbia.

“It is true that the schedule is inconvenient, that it is played a week after the final of the US Open,” he admitted. “I hope that I will be healthy and that I will be available.”

“But I told the coach Viktor (Troicki) that I am here and - I can't wait,” he said.