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Jay Shetty PodcastCELEBRITY ATHLETE Reveals The MINDSET You Need To WIN IN LIFE | Novak Djokovic & Jay Shetty
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Chapter summaries
Scarcity, Priorities, and Befriending the Ego
Novak Djokovic and Jay Shetty discuss the scarcity mindset around deals and opportunities. Djokovic describes centering his life on inner peace and family after years of tennis-only focus, and says he now leans toward befriending the ego rather than treating it as the enemy.
- •Jay describes a scarcity mindset in deals, with people being told they only have a few years
- •Djokovic says he is still learning to manage the opportunities that come with being number one
- •He wants to focus on inner peace, spiritual growth, self-understanding and family
- •He says his ego played with him because tennis was everything for most of his career
- •He now thinks the ego should be befriended rather than rejected
Meeting in Monaco and Why Jay Started the Podcast
Jay introduces Djokovic and the two describe how an online connection became a face-to-face meeting. Jay explains the podcast began after a sports journalist brushed aside Tom Brady's talk about family as 'soft stuff'.
- •Jay introduces Djokovic as number one with 14 Grand Slam titles, including four Wimbledons
- •They connected over Instagram and WhatsApp, and Jay recommends taking good online connections offline
- •Djokovic says he doesn't like to label himself only as an athlete
- •Jay recounts the Tom Brady story as the origin of the platform for deeper conversations
- •Djokovic describes feeling lonely and like a black sheep in his tennis world because of his spiritual development
Family Roots and Beginnings in Tennis
Djokovic gives background on his family, including how his parents met on the ski slope and opened a restaurant in Kopaonik. He explains that tennis courts in front of the restaurant led him to start playing at age four, and says he sees losing as a lesson.
- •His family had no tennis tradition, and three courts sat in front of his parents' restaurant in Kopaonik
- •His father was a ski instructor who met his mother on the slope
- •He has two younger brothers, Marco and Georgie
- •He talks about indigo children and the capacity he sees in his brother
- •He says he sees losing or failure as another lesson to learn and grow from
Growing Up in War: From Revenge to Forgiveness
Djokovic describes the 1990s in Serbia, including the embargo and the 1999 bombings he lived through at age 12. He explains how he moved from wanting revenge to forgiving, and how the experience made him hungrier and more grateful.
- •He mentions the embargo and people waiting in line for bread and milk
- •He describes the 1999 bombings, including his 12th birthday spent around shelters and a plane overhead
- •He first felt revenge, then shifted toward forgiveness with his parents' help, though he says it can't be forgotten
- •He says the experience made him hungrier to prove a kid from a war-torn country can be the best in a global sport
- •He recalls thousands of people on a bridge wearing target shirts as a show of unity
The Snake and the Saw, and Gratitude for Both Extremes
Djokovic shares the story of the snake that bites a saw and ends up killing itself, using it as a parable for anger that hurts the one who holds it. He also recalls his family's hardship and says knowing both extremes makes him more grateful.
- •The snake attacks a saw that cut it and dies, a lesson that anger can hurt ourselves
- •He says this sums up his mental evolution around the war years
- •He remembers his parents having $10 at home with three children to feed
- •Tennis is expensive, and the war years made travel and training hard
- •Jay says Djokovic lives his story as a message that anyone in abject conditions can transform their life
Balance, Ego on the Court, and Surrender
Djokovic says there is always time for everything and that he doesn't believe anyone can permanently be 'in balance'. He explains that the tennis court challenges his ego, that he still has outbursts despite knowing children are watching, and that learning about surrender helped him accept this.
- •He believes in balance but not in ever reaching a fixed state of it
- •He treats the tennis court as a place that challenges his ego and lets him grow
- •He still breaks rackets and curses, and felt he was betraying himself
- •He is aware that children around the world are watching him
- •Learning about surrender and embracing and channeling the work helped him move forward
Greatest Achievement: An Open Mind
When Jay asks about his greatest success, Djokovic answers that it is his open mind. He traces it back to choosing tennis at age nine and to his mentor Jelena Gencic, who taught him a holistic approach to life.
- •He says an open mind lets natural processes flourish, while closed-mindedness shuts things down
- •He admits he has felt resentment, revenge and hatred and says training, repetition and discipline can change a person
- •At about nine, he told his father after half an hour that he chose tennis over skiing
- •His tennis mother Jelena Gencic told his parents she'd never seen a bigger talent since Monica Seles
- •She taught him to think about school grades, music, mindfulness, focus and kindness
Wife, Journaling, Yoga, and Parenthood
Asked about coming back after a slump, Djokovic says he doesn't believe in 'impossible', and describes how his wife shaped his growth. She introduced him to yoga and journaling, and becoming parents deepened their spirituality.
- •He notes the word 'impossible' contains 'I am possible'
- •His wife sacrificed her own career opportunities to live his career and dream
- •She reintroduced journaling and introduced him to yoga and breathing practices
- •He says their kids are their masters and teachers
- •During a six-month injury break she helped him through doubts about whether to keep playing
Spiritual Teachers and Learning to Verbalize Emotions
Djokovic introduces his two spiritual teachers, Zarko Ilic and Jose Pepe Maz. He explains how they helped him open his mind and talk about his emotions, and how he first doubted Pepe's love-and-peace philosophy.
- •Zarko Ilic is a Reiki healer he met through his wife
- •He says he didn't know how to verbalize his emotions, which caused struggles in the relationship
- •He cites the saying that when the student is ready, the teacher appears
- •His brother Marco moved to Spain to be near Pepe, whose philosophy is love and peace
- •He initially thought love and peace on the court would let the opponent win
Inner Work Beyond Tennis Goals
Djokovic reflects that his inner work was long aimed at tennis, leaving him successful but unfulfilled. He says he now understands Pepe's message to do everything with joy while also doing the longer inner work before, during and after.
- •His inner work was for years aimed at becoming a better tennis player
- •He felt he was living a successful life but not a fulfilled one
- •His lifelong goal since age seven was becoming number one, which he achieved in 2011
- •He says goals are needed but must be balanced with inner work
- •Pepe's message was to do whatever you do with excitement and passion while remembering the bigger inner work
Habits, Preparation, Subconscious and Asking Big Questions
Jay asks Djokovic to explain inner work for people who don't get it yet. He talks about distraction and phone habits, preparation, subconscious conditioning, and asking questions like who am I and why am I here.
- •Distraction trains us to be distracted, and he says the phone can become your master
- •He says 80 to 90 percent of a match is the preparation done beforehand
- •He cites Bruce Lipton on the subconscious, repetition and early childhood development
- •He recommends writing down questions about who you are and what you want, and names truth-seeking as part of his own path
- •He cites Jim Kwik's thermostat and thermometer idea about being proactive rather than reactive
Befriending the Ego
Jay returns to Djokovic's earlier remark about ego and asks how he moved from seeing it as the enemy to befriending it. Djokovic says he does have a big ego and chooses to team up with it rather than fight it.
- •Jay calls the ego a mirror that can teach you if you are aware of it
- •Djokovic admits he has a big ego
- •Being an enemy of the ego means constantly reacting to it
- •He frames it as teaming up: you're inside me, how can we work together
- •He says creating a controlled environment is better for your life, even though he dislikes the word control
Final Five: Morning Prayer, Open-Mindedness, and Infinite Consciousness
Jay runs his closing fast five questions. Djokovic describes his morning prayer and gratitude, his daily self-care, his best advice to be open-minded, and what he wants the world to understand: that consciousness expands infinitely.
- •His first act each morning is prayer, starting with gratitude for body, family and senses
- •He keeps energy balanced with daily self-care such as meditation or a two-minute breathing prayer
- •The best advice he has received is to be open-minded
- •His magic-wand message is that our consciousness expands infinitely
- •He says realizing we are more than our five senses opened a door and made him calm yet excited to learn
