*Venus Williams appeared on “The Tamron Hall Show” on Oct. 17 to promote her new book, “Strive: 8 Steps to Find Your Awesome.”
Per Barnes & Nobles: In STRIVE, readers will learn how eight tiny but essential tenets can help turn smart choices into habits. And once that happens, you’ll forge a lifestyle you return to because you want to, not because you have to—and that’s when you start winning.
Speaking to NPR, the seven-time Grand Slam champion said: “This book is really kind of the story of my life. You know, a lot of people would write a biography, and I would write a book about health and wellness. And also, the story of my life as an athlete and kind of the lessons I’ve learned, but in the lens of wellness, too. And in this book, too, I don’t just share, like, all the positive things. I share the mistakes that I’ve made, too – like, what I learned from, not to do again. I call it, I did this. I made this mistake so you don’t have to (laughter).”
Williams also opens up in the book about her diagnosis of Sjögren’s syndrome. She explained to Tamron Hall how she felt “afraid” of how her health issues might affect her career.
“If you have no energy and you still have to play a match, it’s not easy,” she shared, MadameNoire reports. “You have no idea what’s going to happen when you walk on the court. And that’s hard…So I had to just focus on what I could accomplish instead of what I couldn’t. And a lot of days it was a daily thing of refocusing back on what I could accomplish, instead of focusing on all the things that I couldn’t do anymore.”
She told NPR, “There’s been so many people who tell me they’ve been diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome. And I think it’s just been helpful to give a name to it, too, ’cause there are a lot of people who do live with it.”
The global superstar noted that she had to learn how to power through it, which all came down to lifestyle change, saying: I realized I had to find more balance. I had to have a lifestyle change. I had to take more moments for myself. I had to rest more – things that I wasn’t necessarily used to. And if I didn’t do that, then I was never going to go back to tennis.”
Watch her full interview on The Tamron Hall Show via the YouTube clip above.
READ MORE FROM EURWEB.COM: Serena and Venus Williams Creating Documentary About the 1971 Women’s World Cup
