Lessons from Sports

(Or, How Sports helps you Succeed and be Happy in Life)

There are many valuable lessons one can learn from taking part in organized sports activity. Here we will shortly discuss 7 of those. Competing is a mental state too, so one needs to be fully conscious when doing it in order to get all the benefits both mental and physical and everything that is seen in sports can be applied to life in one’s own terms and circumstances.

Comparison
It is not about comparing yourself to anyone else. You got your unique skills which you perfect and train and so does everybody else. Since we are all different, we can’t compare with each other as far as outcome is concerned. My only right is to the effort I make and the skills I develop, hoping that they will be better from the others’. If not, then I go back to practice and get better, at least to the level of being the best I can. That is enough, being the best one can be with their given skillset.

Work ethic
In order anything of importance to be achieved, a certain process must be followed, a usually long process that involves repetition of what it is you do. While going through it, there will be periods of joy and moments of pain. A proper work ethic does not care about success or failure, it only focuses on what needs to be done. The outcome is one thing, what your obligation is, is another. Results always come after you have put in the work, never before. The only aspect of the process you can control is being there every day, doing what is necessary towards your goal. There are no excuses, you either do it, or don’t.

Teamwork
It teaches you how to work with others for one goal. How to minimize your ego for something greater. When you are a part of a team, you work together moving as one. There, every piece contributes to the whole. There is always something you can do, everyone has this or that role to play in whatever situation.Teamwork is true for individual sports too, because there you also have a team of people with who you have to work with(coaches,trainers,nutritionists,doctors etc.). No man is an island byhimself.

Humility
In sports(in life too) you get to your level relying on your own efforts and skill development. I agree, some other factors could interact, but mostly the above is the rule. That is no reason to even think you are someone truly magnificent. You are a person with some strengths and weaknesses and you do your best building your carrer,self,family, around them. You have become what you are by practising, in all meanings. So what? People will be better than you are, people will be not so good. If you are bored to go to practice, guess who is setting the foundation for tomorrows loss. Deal with it and go your way. You are just reaping what you have sown, nothing more, nothing less. There is no reason to be an a-hole just because you have some particular skills.

Every moment, a new opportunity
There is never a moment in any sport, during which nothing is happening. There is always movement, score changes, seconds flying away, victories come and go in the blink of an eye, just like in life if you are conscious enough to notice it. Each moment you have a new opportunity to grab the victory. It is not about the lack of opportunities, it is the lack of us seeing them and recognizing them as such.

Persistence
Anything you can achieve, you can make perfect through everyday development and training. Everything you do can and will be better when you put the effort towards it.
You really are not aware of your limitations. Every time you seem to hit a wall, the next time you get over it like it was not there. What you did yesterday, seems like easy task comparing to what you can do today. Obviously the physical limitations are always there, but you find out you can stretch them all the time.

LOVE
If there is one truly magnificent lesson, that is the one cliched word of the greatest impact though; LOVE. No healthy minded human being would ever go through the pain, the injuries, the endless hours of targeted practice, the schedules, the personal life limitations, the broken bones, the everyday feeling of needing to quit,the monotony, the endless search for motivation if the only reward was fame and money or whatever else external. Be careful, I point out if ONLY that was the motive. It has to be something deeper, something within. Something that is the labour of your love. Something that makes you get out of the bed physically broken, but with a smile and anticipation. Something that defines you. Something that you cannot explain with words, you know it’s there but what exactly is it?
It is what makes your choices. What, you thought your choices were only logical processes? Think deeper.
It is Love, loving what you do, and loving what it develops you into. Love will have an impact on you in a million ways, many of which won’t be clear until only after a long time. In this case, it is retirement from the sport. That is when everything makes sense and you see it clearly.