Venus Williams On Self-Care and the Importance of Staying True to Yourself

You can’t get up thinking you’re going to feel confident every day; that’s just not how it works. But you can work on it, and you can get there. And just because you don’t feel great doesn’t mean you make bad decisions. You still make good decisions. On the court, you might not feel good about shots—so are you just going to sit there and say, “This shot is going to suck” forever? No. You work on it. You have to do the same thing in other areas of life.

If I could go back and [talk to my younger self], I’d say to be careful with the people that you date—you don’t want them to make or break your life. Sometimes when you’re with the wrong person, they can try to take you out of who you are. So one of the things I have learned is to always

stay true to myself, and that kind of shuts down any nonsense right away.

I’m extremely busy, so I have to be able to guard a little time for myself. For me, self-care is also about taking care of my body, which is super important to me. When you are well, you give more to the world and more to your family.

You have to make sure you give yourself credit, too. I remember one particular match I played—I was killing the other girl. But in one set, I was up and she got in a gain. I was so unhappy with that play that I ended up losing the match, just because I couldn’t stop and give myself any credit. It was a tough way to learn that lesson.