Throughout my years of competition, I had several different group dynamics towards integration or physical preparation; never really thought of how much I learned from that; but after graduating I realized how important for major companies was having a candidate with extra curricular activities, preferably sports; and if that involved high performance competition, this became more interesting. I thought it was because those persons can handle several tasks, fatigue, frustration and team work... "we" were the leaders all companies were seeking for! I wondered why sports and not anything else... lets say candle making, or any other hobbie. (Photo: Michael Phelps).
Turns out that athletes have interesting profiles, more than some A+ graduates. Athletes know how to work as a team (not only dividing tasks and doing one's part), get things done instead of whining, cause athletes are competitive and that's a challenge; athletes always want more and better; perform better while working under pressure, handle frustration better, are empathic, extroverted, friendly and tolerant with others, tend to attract people's attention. Why do you think the "popular guys" back in high school or college had most of the times something to do with sports?? Being in a sports team is like growing with a bunch of siblings, you learn how to deal with all the crowd, yet you fight for attention towards your "individual" being.
Even with all those things, there are differences among the preparation a group sport has to do and individual sports, mental wise. Persons who practice solo sports are more self-assured and shy, strong determined, don't quit. All this is important not only for sports, but is a big learning for life, you can apply all this in all aspects if you know how to take advantage of them.
Mental preparation for sports (and life) is not about setting your mind in "i'm gonna win, i'm gonna win", is about learning how to deal with different unexpected situations, keep focused, keep on control.
All this becomes stronger as you grow up, personally I see some traits of this myself on my day to day, more now than before, probably because I'm more conscious now than years ago. In sports, and any situation, is not only about physical preparation; some times is about overcoming fatigue, being hurt, feeling like giving up... I would risk to say is 80-20, where bigger weight is on mental determination, psychological preparation. TAKE THIS TO ANY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE.
I relate this to something I once read from John C. Maxwell, lately one of my favorite authors, who stated "Talent is never enough". In both, sports or work, you can have the material but you gotta learn how to work it. John speaks about PASSION. This is what drives us, our fire. Around us are persons who might support us (fire starters), or persons who might be negative (fire fighters). WE SHOULD GET AWAY FROM ANYONE WHO TELL US "YOU CAN'T".
This is where all the mental preparation takes importance, on your journey towards any goal, name it 42k or any dream, you'll find a lot of "you can't"s; but go back to basis on this: stay focused, keep on control, deal with unexpected situations.
Myself, I've found persons around me who've been really supportive about my training, others who are totally indifferent, and the ones who openly said "you won't finish, you are wasting your time". If I didn't have all those traits I got because of sports, probably I would've been sad for over 5 mins and quit; I preferred to laugh and say "Thank you for saying that, I just reassured what I want, hope to see you at the finish line with a bottle of water!". At the end, you are the one who knows what do you want, and how bad you want it; so NEVER QUIT ON YOUR DREAM BECAUSE SOMEBODY THINKS YOU CAN'T... the moment you think you can't is probably the moment you gave up the game.
DON'T QUIT, KEEP UP, AND THE WAY YOU HANDLE THE ROAD, IS A REFLECTION OF HOW YOU HANDLE THINGS OUTSIDE OF IT... How great are you?
I'll be glad to receive your comments, and tweets (@titacabrera).
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