How Sports Does And Does not Translate To Life…
I wrote this story in my journal on a Sunday, November 20th, 2022. I had just started my first full-time job, and found my own place, a small studio, 3 minutes away from the beach. I’m now on the beach writing this story, as if I was talking to others.
Sports teaches you so much about life… You learn to use your strengths to make an impact towards a common objective that is bigger than you. You quickly learn that you can't be good at everything, that it’s not about you and that people, especially younger people, are looking up to you. So you better not screw it up.
You put into practice that alone you might get faster to a personal goal, but that together you get further and make a bigger impact. You have this drive every single day to work so hard for a bigger purpose, and you learn to never give up until you get to the finish line. You learn to lead AND you learn to follow.
You learn to work in the abstract and bring value, even when value is not fully defined for you.
You learn to turn stress into excitement because the symptoms are the same. You learn to turn failure into your next step towards your next achievement. You get comfortable trying, failing, and trying again. And then, you find ways to get uncomfortable again and challenge yourself to figure it out.
Freshman Year
When I transitioned from playing 40 minutes per game and being the “mom of the team” to leading from the sidelines and always bringing the energy that the team needed.
You learn the importance of being grateful for what you got and always recognizing others for what they help you achieve.
You learn to put yourself in rooms where everyone is better than you because that is the only way to become better than your current self. You learn to shine a light on others and do the work when no one is watching without expecting that people will shine a light on you.
You learn that your experience will be useful after sports only if you apply what you learned wherever you go next… and lean on others who have already lived life after sports. Because it is truly a different life…
What do you NOT learn in sports that will come later in your life?
You end up learning that in life, there is not always a winner and a loser. Life is not a zero-sum game. You end up learning that it’s not making unachievable goals that will get you to where you want to be. It’s not because you reach for the stars that you’ll reach the moon.
You end up learning that you have to manage people’s expectations (AND your own). It’s better to under promise and over deliver, than the opposite. You have to rest and make space for what you truly love.
You end up learning that you are now in control of your own schedule. You can do whatever you want… and then you ask yourself, “what do I really want?”
A few moments of my solo backpack trip in Europe where I had full control over my schedule for the first time and had to ask myself,
“what do I want to do today?”. An unfamiliar, but life-changing feeling.
You end up learning that you are not a robot and that it’s okay to not feel 100% all the time. You end up learning this and more, and then you learn that there is no shortcut, we all have to go through it. Best you can do is find a friend who will walk through it with you.
You now have the freedom to make the most out of this opportunity…
So get to know yourself. Define who you are beyond sports. Define what you really want. Be curious. Be humble. Be scared. Be confident. Take risks and pick yourself back up. And most of all, keep applying what you learned in sports to make the world around you just a little bit better than how it was when you got here. Use your experience to have an impact on others and have fun doing it.
One lesson that sports started teaching me is the ability to adapt to any kind of situation, change your role when needed, develop other attributes, push forward when someone sees something in you that you've never done before.
Believe me, you have adapted to a tremendous amount of situations.
So, I know this feels new, but you are prepared for it. All that we know is that change is good when we are willing to make it positive. So, keep adapting, and lots of good will come out of it…
For me it was sports, for you it might be music, art, your career…
in the comments below, tell more about a transition moment that guided you to become the person you are today?
