Rackets

The first time I came across the concept of "rackets" (or "racquet" an alternative spelling more common in Britain) was during my Landmark Forum in Sept 2005. I was introduced to a new world of "Rackets" in this course. Till that time, the word racket meant (or "racquet", an alternative spelling more common in Britain) a bat with a round or oval frame strung with catgut, nylon, etc., used primarily in tennis, badminton, and squash.

The concept of Rackets comes from ontological (ways of being) and phenomenological models of self-discovery developed by Werner Erhard and further developed by Landmark Worldwide. This is also mentioned in the book, "Three Laws of Performance" written by Steve Zaffron and David Logan.

To understand the concepts of Rackets, let's unpack their contents. It has four parts,  first consists of a "persistent complaint".

Some examples of persistent complaints you might have observed.

• " xyz is again late for the daily stand up."
• "ABC never  keeps his/her camera on during the zoom calls"
• "Today also you have not kept your shoes back"
• “He's/She's  always looking at his/her phone.”

Take a sheet of paper and start writing your persistent complaints. Choose one of your complaints and work along as you read through this article.

The second part of the racket, there is a pattern of behaviour that comes along with the racket.  You might experience upset, anger, frustration, or helplessness.  For example, you might have a racket with your partner that he/she is always on the phone. Whenever you observe that your racket will trigger "He's/she's is again on his/her phone" your internal voice might say "I'm mad and frustrated by this". You might say "again you are on your phone", and invite a fight or might become quiet and show your frustration in a different form. Write the behaviour or what you experience.

It is easy to identify the first two parts of the complaint.

The third part of the racket is the payoff for having this complaint continue. In the above example, the partner gets to be right, and makes his/her other partner wrong, and gets to dominate the situation. This is the most difficult part. The logic is, if the complaint is persisting then there is some payoff and that is the reason it still exists. It is normally a function of avoiding to take responsibility for that situation.

The fourth part of the racket is the cost of this behaviour and keeping this complaint alive. Like a business transaction, for every pay off there's a cost. The cost might come in the form of loss of closeness, intimacy, and satisfaction between partners.

Most often the rackets in a relationship are perfectly paired. In the above example, the other partner might have a racket "I never get some 'me' time, I was on my phone catching up with the news". When two people have rackets against each other then the quality of relationship suffers significantly.

You might have rackets against your boss, your company, or government. It is one way of avoiding taking responsibility for your life. Most people continue with their rackets without ever pausing to look at the cost they are paying for it. In any situation, the biggest cost you pay for your rackets is your "freedom". You let yourself be sabotaged by your dysfunctional behaviour. You don't get to explore and express your full potential and self-expression. That is not only a loss to you but also to the people around you and society.

How to come out of your Rackets?

As soon as you identify your rackets all you have to do is to drop them.

Ask yourself "is it worth it?". Just stop it.

If you are finding it difficult to drop your rackets then you have to come out of your default world view.  Ontologically we can divide the world into two worlds, a world of rackets (default), and the world of possibilities (created). Practice to operate from the world of possibilities.

The world of Rackets: Is dominated by right/wrong, good/bad, compliance, cpmparisoon,command and control,anger, resentment, Centred around self "me".

The World of Possibility: in the world of possibility there is no judgement and hence no right or wrong, good/bad, it is an act of creation, open to creativity, based on forgiveness, peace and happiness,  and centred around others, about "we".

The more you operate from the world of possibility the less rackets will dominate your life. You can start living your created life.

Refernces

1. Landmark Forum (Sep 2005) - course participation

2. Three Laws of Performance - Steve Zaffron and David Logan