Nadal revising his goals on the fly?

Picture this:

You decide on a certain goal grounded in reality and your ‘known’ abilities at the time. As you move towards the target the progress startles you as many real and illusive factors chime in to leave you with more than enough time to kill. Even though you are still short of your original goal, you are left with no option but to revise your to-do list out of sheer greed and the perception of attaining you never thought even possible based on initial draft. You can barely contain the excitement.

Nadal’s initial target may have been to just master clay which he was ‘forced’ to outgrow largely due to Federer’s presence on the tour. He has now – with this career Slam – near unanimously reached the threshold where 16 looks possible. Just the transformation of a target from the realm of impossible to possible – without even getting there – sets in motion a flurry of activity that forces the revision of the ‘previous’ diary of destinations.

So what can be beyond No. 16? Have a clue? No, you don’t!!!!!!!!!!!

Could it be consistency? Why? Because even if Nadal gets to No. 16, based on whatever we have seen from him today, he is not likely to match Federer’s consistency year after year for nearly seven freaking years. If you just consider the Slams – that’s 16 in seven years. Is that the reason for Nadal opting for a 250 event? Maybe not. But that next horizon may have already opened up on his radar just as No. 16 opened up after No. 9.

That’s the beauty of life. You can NEVER outgrow yourself. And you should not. Why? Because not only does the achievement of the immediate goal becomes vulnerable, your very existence becomes laborious – if the new horizon is not extended its due reverence. The key is to so meticulously balance the act that compartmentalization reaches a complete air tight state.

Nadal may still be in a pretty premature plight with this new phase but it’s existence is undeniable and inevitable. The only uncertainty is whether the person actually recognizes it to continue on the path of improvement and vibrancy.

And where’s my medication now.