Novak Djokovic on Manifesting Success & Winning Olympic Gold

0:00Novak Djokovic just won the gold medal here in Paris and it's incredible to see what he is able to do at his age with all the years of his career after just having knee surgery a couple of months ago losing getting runner-up at Wimbledon then coming back and winning Olympic gold here in Paris. He is an incredible leader. He is one of the top athletes in the world and it's amazing to see how his mindset continues to allow him to manifest and achieve success at the highest level and this is something he's been trying to accomplish for many years. He's never won a gold medal and he's tried many times and he finally accomplished this.

0:41In this interview we talk about his mindset, how he thinks about manifesting the future, how he lives in the moment as well while dreaming about the future. This is going to be a powerful episode that you're going to watch and you're going to hear a four-minute clip that I did behind the scenes talking with Novak after one of his games five years ago talking about how he thinks and prepares, how he overcomes challenging moments when he's behind. And it's amazing to see how his mind thinks in the game. He talks about these breathing strategies and techniques. So pay attention during this entire interview.

1:17Make sure to share with your friends. And I can't wait for you to enjoy this entire episode with the one and only Novak Djokovic. Hey, everyone. This is Lewis Howes, and I am so excited to invite you to the Summit of Greatness 2024. happening at the iconic Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. This is more than just an event. It's a powerful experience designed to ignite your passion, boost your growth, and connect you with a community of other inspiring achievers. Join us Friday, September 13th, and Saturday, September 14th for two days packed with inspiration and transformation from some of the most incredible speakers on the planet.

1:54Don't miss out on this chance to elevate your life, unlock your potential, and be part of something truly special. Make sure to get your tickets right now and step into greatness with us at the Summit of Greatness 2024. Head over to lewishouse.com slash tickets and get your tickets today, and I will see you there. All right, guys. Welcome back to the School of Greatness podcast. We have the legendary Novak Djokovic. That's great. In the house, man. You pronounced it very well. I pronounced it the way you told me to. Thank you for having me. I'm super excited about this. This is your first podcast.

2:25First podcast, yes. And we had lunch a couple days ago. your wife, Elena, introduced me to you. She had found, I guess, some of my information somewhere, our podcast somewhere, and reached out, asked me to do an interview with her. We had a great conversation. She was like, you have to meet my husband. You're going to love him. And I said, okay, I don't really know much about you. And then she was telling me all these things about you, about how you really are here, yes, to be the best tennis player that you can be, but to make a massive impact in the world. And that you constantly want to give back, and you want to spread love and joy and bring humanity together.

3:02And I said, okay, if he's more than just an athlete, then I must meet this guy. She gives best introductions of me, I must say. Exactly. I'm very grateful to have her in my life. And I think it starts from there, really, emotional stability, the love. First of all, yourself, of course, but then being able to share love and share everything that you experience in life with your partner is something that brought a lot of joy, a lot of inner peace, and a lot of success later on in my life. She's probably the only serious relationship I ever had. I was telling you the other day at lunch, but she'll probably not agree with that.

3:43She's like, yeah, but you had a girlfriend three and a half months before me. Okay, yes, I had, but we started dating. I was 18, she was 19, and now we've been married for four years. No, what is it? Three. Oh, my God. I'm going to get in trouble. It's all good. I have the ring on, darling. It's fine. Yeah, so, but we have two beautiful children, and it's great to be able to share my life with her. Yeah, it's amazing. Now, you started tennis when you were four. Is that right? Started playing at four? I started when I was, yeah, started when I was four years old, and, you know, story goes like this.

4:20Basically, nobody has touched the racket before me in my family, so I don't have any tradition that I inherited to play tennis. Tennis was never a big sport in our country. Before that, we did have Monica Selic, for example. I don't know if you remember her. And she came over to States and she played for Yugoslavia at that time. And then she played for States as well. So she was our biggest star. We had Slobodan Boba Zivoyinovic, who was top 20 of the world, singles and first in doubles. But that's as far as we go in Serbia. Croatia, on the other hand, had more success. They had Goran Ivanishevic and then Pilic and all these guys that were top three, four, two in the world and winning grand slams and so forth.

5:02But tennis was never a big sport. We're more a nation of team sports, basketball, soccer, and handball, volleyball, water polo. I mean, we had a huge amount of success in those sports. Water polo, you guys are Olympic champions, weren't you? I mean, these guys are one of the most dominant teams in all sports ever. I mean, these guys haven't lost a game like in 10 years. You know, they're amazing. So, yeah. And then I grew up with my family in one mountain resort in Serbia called Kopalnik. My parents had restaurant business there. We used to go commute between the capital city, Belgrade, where I was born and where we basically lived and went to school.

5:44And Kopalnik often because of the business that we lived out of. Yeah. The restaurant was in Belgrade? No, the restaurant was on the mountains. So the mountain was quite popular in those days with, you know, summer and winter and all spring. Yeah, exactly. Snowboarders. But then as the wars came after that, unfortunately, it became only a very seasonal thing just to go get a couple months of skiing and that's all. And they were building three tennis courts actually in front of that restaurant when I was four. It was 1991. It was just, I think, the year before the war started, actually, when Yugoslavia broke apart.

6:19And we still had a lot of foreigners coming and so forth. So there was a lot of interest for tennis because tennis is a sport that was born in France and in England in more aristocratic environments. Tennis is a sport of gentlemen. It's not a very easily accessible sport, affordable sport like maybe basketball, soccer, football, those type of sports. So I fell in love with it right away. I mean, I helped workers make the court and return. I was bringing some beers to them. I was a small kid. Yeah, I was eager. I was curious as any other child what is going on here so finally you know I found out it's tennis I just became aware that I'm alive you know four years old I mean I was that young and I was like okay dad I would like to you know see what's going on here and maybe eventually get a racket you know and so I started asking and then begging and then please you know so eventually he he said great here you go racket ball and then tennis camps started to come over from belgrade and different cities in serbia i joined right away the first camp that i saw there was like a bunch of kids coming from different cities in serbia and it was like a program for a week because it was so close to the restaurant which my parents had i just kind of walked there and hang on the fence and just try to understand what the sport is and I started watching it on tv and then the rest of it is history you know I really was very fortunate to meet that same year I think or the year after I like to call her my tennis mother she has greatly influenced my tennis career my life as well my parents were really kind and they trusted her so that she can have influence off the court on me as well, which is tricky to do as a parent, you know, I mean, especially if you have a child that is that young, you as a parent, you believe that you have everything that the child needs in order to, I guess, help him develop into a mature and healthy, you know, human being.

8:25And so as a parent, you always think like, okay, who is going to be the mentor of my child? Both my mom and dad were really happy with, I guess, quality of person that Jelena Gancic was. And she used to train also with Monica Seles and so forth. So she was probably the best person I could have at that stage. And she saw me right away. She said, okay, you have great talent. She told my parents. She said, okay, this kid can be number one of the world. At five years old? And that was, exactly. It was at six or seven. After you were playing for a little bit now. For a few years. But she said, you know, right away she said, okay, it was something different because I came to the practice first tennis practice ever you know I came in with a little bag and a little extra t-shirt I had a little bottle of water and whatever I prepared that I was very very much into it I wanted to be ready and so she found that very odd and she found that very special so she said there's something about him that is different and she was telling my parents that that she they should support me bear in mind that those were 90s and we had two wars and we all this bunch of different difficulties there were an adversities in life that we were facing, which was making it as difficult, as much difficult for my parents to support me and to become a tennis player and to pursue my dream.

9:40And it was, as we talked about it five minutes ago, I mean, it's an expensive sport. You know, you've got to afford record, coach, all this stuff. But we went through all this stuff and my father saw that spark in my eyes and said, okay, this is what you're going to do. Amazing, man. This is crazy. So do you think that if she didn't say that you could be number one in the world, do you think you would have actually become it without having someone else believe in you? Or was that belief early on? You know, I usually don't like to play with these questions, what if, what if, what if. Because I believe that everything in life happens with a reason and for a reason.

10:16I think if we have to think about it, I don't know if I would actually pursue the career of a tennis player if it wasn't for the belief and support that I had for my parents and her. Really? Of course, I fell in love with the sport. But when you're that young, kids are curious. So we play different, you know, different sports. You engage yourself and who knows where the, I guess the path takes you, you know. And I did play other sports as well. I mean, I did skiing because it was mountain. My father was a professional skier. My aunt, my uncle, they were all competitors and they were all competing on a high level in a regional level and European level.

10:52So that's actually how my parents met as well. My father was an instructor and she was skiing. and so the whole thing, you know, and then here I am. So skiing was and still is today a great passion of mine. Yes, but you're right. If I haven't had her and my parents saying, okay, there is something that you should pursue here in this sport, I probably would play other sports and probably the sports that were more popular, you know, with friends. Team sports, yeah. You know how it is. I mean, when you're that young, you want to play sports and you want to belong to a group, to a little community, whatever.

11:26So nobody was really, there were not many kids playing tennis because it was expensive. It was not affordable. It was isolated. It was not maybe as much fun as some other team sports because, you know, when you're playing soccer or basketball, it's more fun like this. Exactly. You're more isolated, more individual. You do play, you know, of course, in groups and so forth and camps and stuff like that. But half of the time you're spending it by yourself on one side of the net. And that's all you got. That's crazy. Now, the first war, you went through two wars in Serbia, right? The first war, you were six, seven?

11:57Yeah, I was five, I think, 1992. Yeah, that's when I was five. And that one was the lesser of the two wars, is that right? It was still bombs everywhere, but it wasn't as hard as the second. So the first war was more in Croatia and Bosnia. It was between Serbs and Bosnians and Croatians, and then the whole Yugoslavia, that was once a big country with six, seven states that fall apart. The war lasted for a long time, I think three, four years. And there was a lot of victims. Nobody wins in war. I mean, it's a terrible thing. But I didn't feel it. My family didn't feel it in Belgrade, in Serbia, as much as people, these areas of Bosnia and Croatia felt it.

12:39Yeah, gotcha. The second war was the one you felt the most, right? Yes. And you were around 12? I was 12. And I remember, actually, I celebrated my birthday during those two and a half months of bombing. and I was turning 12 and I still remember that scene. Actually, we were having this like a little birthday party at this tennis club. So us kids, we, of course, we were frightened. We were scared. We were, we didn't know what tomorrow brings. But at the same time, as a child, you don't really have the worries that adults have. So you're living in the moment. And for us, it was great that we get to spend more time playing tennis, having fun than in school.

13:20so it was like oh great you know we get to do that and that we don't get to sit you know for hours and hours but we get to actually play there was no class during that time no absolutely not no no it was canceled canceled everything you know it's just many people fleed and just wow it was one of these things that it was not like from one day to another we were kind of warned about it months prior to when it happened but i think super majority of people really didn't believe that that's going to happen. Really? Imagining that, you know, you sit here and you see planes, you know, dropping bombs here and there.

13:56I mean, it's, and everything is trembling and the windows are breaking and everybody's screaming. And the whole city, I mean, the whole country was basically bombed. It was because of the part of Serbia at the time. And it was Kosovo. That was the whole thing. I mean, not to get into politics because it's, it just gets ugly. You know, it was one of these things where you just don't know. That feeling of insecurity, helplessness, it's terrible. Because, you know, we as human beings, we like to have a control of environment, of where we live, what we're going to do, you know, of our experiences.

14:30And this was completely taken away from us. And there was this higher power from above that could do anything to anybody. And you could be a collateral damage any minute, basically. Did you see bombs dropping every day? Every day. Yeah. I didn't see it myself. I heard it. Of course, I felt it. I've seen. I have this image still in my mind where I think it was the first week when it actually started. And we were still very, very much, of course, afraid. And we were running to the shelters. And my father's sister, so my aunt, she lived with her family about, you know, three, four hundred feet away from our building.

15:13So we lived in one building. She lived in another building. and her building had underground shelters and ours didn't. So we literally for every night for first couple of weeks, we ran like around 2, 3 a.m. That's when it started to... The bombs started to come. Yeah, exactly. That's when we were going there. So we just wake up, pack our things, cry a little bit, scream, whatever, and then just take our whatever necessities and just go there. So we'll spend two weeks, most of the nights, in those underground shelters. And I remember, I think, one of the first nights I, and you see, it's, you know, it's obviously middle of the night.

15:52It's, you know, pitch darkness. And all of a sudden, you see these flashes of light everywhere. No way. You know, explosions. And you feel the ground trembling. And it was a devastating experience. And then I remember us running. It was one night. It was, I think, the third night, second or third night of bombings. I was 12. I have two younger brothers. The middle brother was eight. The youngest brother was four. so uh the middle brother he was running as well with with our with our dad and my mom was carrying the youngest one so i was behind i dropped something so i picked it up i was losing my footing so i they didn't hear me because of the noise so it was distance and i was frightened i'm going to be left alone so as i was running i i trembled you know on the on the rock i fell down and i turned around and then i could see this i don't know it's f-16 plane or something like this they call it the invisible one so just like huge species flew and just dropped something there which was very close it was the military hospital i was telling you about yeah no i mean just those kind of images are stuck in your mind forever but at the same time as i was telling you i feel like that experience has shaped me into the person i am today has helped me to be more appreciative of life, give more value, I'm more grateful.

17:13And just because of everything that has happened in those 10 years, actually, because after the first war to the second war, the whole country was, we had embargo. So there was no imports, lack of gas for cars. There was, you know, bread and milk. You had lines of people, you know, accused like very long ones. So you had to wait like hours to get bread and all these different different things that have happened it made me and my family and all the people in Serbia more resilient you know and just more just tougher you know for whatever challenges that we face in life for whatever adversity is out there and I think that some people stayed stuck in that emotion of maybe hatred and revenge type of feeling I am not and I don't believe that's the right thing to do because then you feel like you're a prisoner of your own emotions in your life because you can't blame anyone can't blame people of any country for what has happened because they're it's not their fault you know some maybe decisions of some head of states or or or militaries or whatever i mean in the end of the day if you carry this for all your life does it really make any any change for you it is it is going to enrich your life i mean it's not so you cannot ask people to forget and that's one thing that i realized because i was fortunate not to lose anyone that is close to me my family my brothers everyone is is good is healthy also cousins and so forth everybody's okay but you know i know people that lost their parents they lost somebody very close and they lost homes they lost lives and they had to start over you know from scratch i think almost half a million refugees and even more.

18:58I mean, God knows how many people died and you can still see. And then one day I hope you'll come to Belgrade and you still see the traces of that. You still see buildings that are ruins and since 99. And it's funny, but they use it as a touristic attraction today, you know, as well, whatever. So, but it's hard to ask people, Hey, just forget about it. You cannot forget about that. You cannot. It's one of these things that is, that is deeply engraved into your subconscious, into your emotions, into your memory. But I think you can get over it and let it go. And that's something that I felt like I've managed to do it myself.

19:37And many people did, but many people also didn't. The wounds are fresh. It happened, I mean, what is 99? It's almost 20 years ago. So it's still relatively fresh. And it was in your childhood. I mean, it was a time in your teens, I guess, right before you became a teenager. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it was intense, man. It was, I couldn't even imagine. Yeah. It's intense, you know, and two and a half months, you said every day, right? That's why, I mean, it hurts me every time I hear about refugees, every time I hear about bombings, about war and what's happening in, you know, in Syria and Middle East, it's just in Syria, let's take Syria, for example.

20:14I mean, I had one incredible experience that, I mean, I've never cried that much in my life. I became a UNICEF ambassador of goodwill for the region 10 years ago. And then in the meantime, became the global ambassador. And as I become global ambassador some years ago, I start to different things for UNICEF and my foundation because UNICEF and my foundation are collaborating. And I remember it was, I suppose, a year and a half ago. It was just recently. I mean, when the whole Syria war started, it was a huge thing in Europe because probably third or quarter or third of the country just left can you imagine you have 12 million people in Syria and it was three or four million people left the country crazy probably even more now today because they lost homes they lost their lives they lost their close ones what they're going to do they want to you know search they want to go to some place that will offer them roof above their heads and social help that they don't have in their country because it's completely devastated it's completely destroyed so you know many many like thousands and tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of refugees went through Serbia to go to Germany Austria I guess the bigger countries in Europe and so we were on their trajectory.

21:38I went to visit one of those kind of locations that was offered from the city as a resting place, as shelters, temporary homes for the people that are passing through. And it was one of the hotels in town in Belgrade. They gave them the whole lobby area, the whole floor. As I came over, I already start to feel this. Obviously, I do a lot for my foundation and so forth and it touches your hearts because we're going to talk about it in a minute, but we focus a lot on education and it's a different thing. You don't get to see the devastation, the hurt, the pain as much. You see that, but not as much as you see it here.

22:19I knew what kind of could predict what's going to happen and what awaits me. So I start to feel all of a sudden these emotions because I've been fortunate. I haven't been a refugee myself, but I know many of my friends and people around me that are refugees of the wars during 90s. So as I come in, and I'm supposed to, there's a camera, I think it was CNN and a couple other cameras, and they wanted me to record a message for people being there to ask for help, to raise funds to help refugees and to build homes for them and so forth. And as I came in and then you see different rooms, there's a playroom, then there's a resting room and so forth.

23:02and the look on these people's faces was something that was wow boom right away first impression was like pain insecurity yeah devastation sadness it's just all these emotions and just they're they were flat literally they were flat they didn't know what's happening i mean they're like okay we're here now but where are we walking where are we going what's going to happen where is our life tomorrow so as i'm walking into this small area play area for for children there are plenty of children there i observe them for a little bit and then one of the volunteers there tells me why don't you join them you know try to so i i didn't know how to react yeah honestly i i was there i didn't want to you know i wanted to be with them but at the same time i don't want to be in their space because you know i could i could feel the emotions i could feel what they're going through.

23:55So I start playing around and 10 minutes later, I really got into it. And there was a couple of children around me and we start playing with toys and measuring things and whatever. It was really cool. And then somebody taps my shoulder and it was one of the people from UNICEF. And she came with the mother of a child that I was playing with. And she was a girl that was probably not even two, two and a half years old. And she told me her mom came to pick her up it's time to go i thought to myself where where are they gonna go right what's gonna happen i mean it's sorry i just it's it's it's even today it's yeah it's it's just so emotional you know because i don't know where they where they went you know it's it's like having this this this girl and mom taking a boy who was six seven years old and this little girl they're traveling god knows where by foot no home no nothing behind them you know and then in front of them so and then i was supposed to tell something in the camera i'm like guys like now i mean i i can't speak i can't speak because it's just one of these things that breaks your heart you know right and it's just sorry that's what war does that's what war does but at the same time I'm really grateful that I've been through that through this experience through wars and 90s and all these things because it made me more human it made me more connected with other people because whatever happens in the world I know that we are all going through that through that experience of trying to live trying to take the best out of this life experience for ourselves and I think going through those emotions and those experiences and past just allowed me to be more warm-hearted towards people and and I feel that that I get the same and yeah I mean yeah wow man thanks for sharing that story yeah I'm sorry I just it was one of these things that is that is really it just stays with you and it stays with you and I like to look back to it as much as it hurts me i like to go back to it and then understand that what i have in life and how fast i can lose all of that if i don't appreciate it if i'm not living in the present and and knowing that there are people like that even today going through all of this and us being in this incredible life and having this fortune to be successful and to be heard as well you know everything that we say you know there are thousands of millions of people following you myself children that are looking up to us and then saying okay i mean this is something that i can use to to be better and i want to be like him so i think having this in my subconscious and all these experiences in the past and never forgetting about that keeps me grounded keeps me aware that everything i say is heard in these places that that really need your advice that need your help that need your light so you know it's all about sharing that light and sharing that love yeah Yeah.

27:03Wow, man. What would you say is the biggest lesson you learned from war, from that whole experience personally? The biggest lesson that I've learned is probably that I should be always kind to anyone and everyone, no matter what experience they go through, because you never know. You never know what one person goes through. You just always be kind because there is something that we call God, universe, angels. There is this higher force above and here on this planet that is going to help us to live a prosperous life, to be happy, to be healthy, to be joyful, to have that peace. If we truly respect and appreciate ourselves and others in that process as well.

27:54Wow. Now, were you able to even think about tennis? You know, you had this dream of being number one at four, five, six. And then during the wartime, were you still thinking, oh, this is something I could still do? Or I have no clue where I'm going to be tomorrow because these bombs are right around me within miles. Were you able to practice? Were you just not sure? Were you just trying to, you know? Oh, I was practicing big time. I was, yeah, I was, as I told you, you know, I've. That was your time. I mean, no school. Exactly, no school. I mean, I enjoyed school. I think it's great. But at the same time, I like to be on the tennis court more, you know, because I was completely in love with it and just a huge passion of mine.

28:38And I started to do better and better and started to win some local tournaments. I was, you know, 11, 12 years old. And during those two and a half months of bombing, we actually spent, after the second week was done, because in the first couple of weeks, we were like, okay, let's just survive. And let's just figure things out. We don't know what's going to happen. And then after the second week, we were like, okay, this is going to happen. God knows how long it's going to go for. So we might as well continue living our, so to say, normal everyday lives, whatever that is. And so I spent a lot of time on tennis courts.

29:12And we had a lot of tournaments. And I actually remember, I haven't been part of it, but I was still young. I was just too little. but there were people that were organizing this so-called target group activity. So they would, because they were bombing our bridges as well. So they would go out on one of like most important bridges that connects the two important parts of the town. So people would go there literally more or less every day with t-shirts that would have like a target drawn on them. And also on their faces, they would like draw targets or on their, you know, top of their heads. and they would sing songs.

29:51They would be together united. And there was like a message out there. Okay, we are the target. Try to do something now. Like, this is us. We are here. So thankfully nothing happened there. But that was how powerful this whole experience was for people to get together. It was devastating. It was all these things that we talked about. There's something positive out of it is that people survived because, and we got through it as people, as country, because we were together. We were united. And we talked about it the other day on the lunch, is that I was complaining to you a little bit about Serbian people that we are not united when we are supposed to be.

30:27Right. We are united. Like pull each other down. Exactly. I tell you that joke, yeah. I think especially younger generations at that time, they were like, okay, this is our time to be rebellious. You know, when you're younger, you're rebellious. You know, you want to be part of those activities and it's fun. So we tried to turn it into fun. Yeah. You know, as much as we could. During the bombing. It's crazy. Exactly. Yeah. Now, when did you start to fully believe in yourself that you were able to achieve what you wanted to do in tennis? When did the belief fit in where you're like, yes, this is possible for me?

30:59Oh, very early. I knew already I'm going to become number one of the world. Like I was seven. I think I was it was probably first was the first TV show I had. Like I was guest in one of these kids shows and on a national TV or something like that. And I said that tennis is commitment, is my obligation, is something I have to do. I mean, I was already, I was so disciplined, you know, at that time. And they say that there's a great quote about this. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments, right? So whatever in life you envision to do, you got to be disciplined. You know, disciplined spiritually, disciplined in sports, in whatever, in your family, in your relationships.

31:42so very early I think and my parents and my tennis mother Janina Gencic they've deeply ingrained that discipline in me and then I knew I mean already seven eight I was like okay this is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life I knew it was very clear what is strange about it is that if you take in consideration all the circumstances in which I've grown up as a child it was very odd and there There was many people that were laughing at it. And it's just, it was, uh, my father had to, he went through so much. I'm, I'm eternally grateful to both my parents and my father has borrowed money from people that were chasing him in car.

32:20I mean, you would not imagine the experiences that he had and we had in order for me to travel to United States, for example, for the first time in my life. And during those nineties, I mean, and, and because of embargo and all the things, the criminal rate raised. so there was a lot of kidnapping and different stuff and it was it's not even close like that now it's great it's it's fantastic it's safe and it's all fine but during those seven eight years it was really tough people were scraping and people were fighting for their lives basically surviving it's a matter of like you take one bread or two breads it makes a difference you know you need to stay in line and god knows if you're gonna have a bread in a week time you know so it was literally that kind of survival mode for everyone so i think from very early stages of my life, I knew what I wanted to do, but not just what I wanted to do, but what I wanted to achieve.