Why Athletes are Good at Life
Participating in a sport, training your mind and your body, and challenging yourself will make you an athlete, and doing these things will make you good at life. When we participate in a sport (individual or team) we start to understand how rules apply to us and those around us. We can identify goals and objectives with which we strive to accomplish successes. Sports will have a winner and a loser; we learn how to succeed and how to accept when we need to improve to earn a victory. We also learn that having lost does not make us a loser – we came, we participated, we put in all of the effort, we executed all that we had learned, and we challenged ourselves to be judged for it.
Put in the Work
Athletes train their body and their mind. We recognize that practice and training will result in improvements in our endeavors. When we train our body we see that we can become bigger (or smaller), faster, stronger, tougher, and quicker. We build stamina and endurance. When we train our mind we see that we become smarter, quicker, resilient, aware, confident, mentally prepared/tough, and insightful. Ultimately, we start to know ourselves.
Challenge Yourself
Athletes will challenge themselves. We look at what we can do and then we demand more of ourselves. We compare ourselves to ourselves. We strive to perform at a level we perceive to be greater than where we are – sometimes greater than where we believe we can get. We wouldn’t be interested if it was easy.
Success is not always Winning
Athletes are very good at life – regardless of their success in sport. An athlete understands what dedication is – we know how effort and time will result in rewards; we know that something earned has incredible value; we know that excitement, enjoyment, and personal values will keep us on track. Alternatively, we know that if we don’t put in the time and effort we will not receive the rewards; we know that things will not be easy or just given to us but that we can work to improve; we know that even if we don’t feel like doing it all the time, struggling with low motivation, we can’t just give up.
Life is Enriched through Awareness
Win at Life
Athletes have good self-awareness – we are aware of our strengths and limitations; we are aware of mental and physical skills that we possess; we are aware of teamwork and how we fit into a team. Athletes know how to be happy and free — the enjoyment, enrichment, excitement, freedom, and life involved in sport is where we are complete.