Where did you learn what it takes to be successful?
For me – outside of what my parents taught me – competitive athletics had by far the biggest impact.
It’s funny, thinking back to the things I learned in high school, as an undergrad and in graduate school – not a lot of it has a daily impact on what I do.
But the lessons I learned in sports – they matter every day.
Here are a few of the things being an athlete or coaching athletes taught me:
- The Ability To Handle Adversity – you can’t go very far as an athlete without having to overcome adversity and the most successful athletes are usually the ones who deal with adversity the most effectively.
- Work Ethic – I remember my freshman year of high school going to baseball practice at 3:15 after school and being done at 8. It was kind of a rude awakening for a 14 year old, but I quickly learned that to be successful you couldn’t do just enough to get by. I don’t know anyone who has ever become a real success just punching the clock and working 9-5.
- The Intangibles Matter As Much As The Tangibles – Many of the most talented athletes I’ve ever played with or coached were huge underachievers when it came to performance. They didn’t have the passion, drive or willingness to work hard. They couldn’t handle adversity. To this day – I’ll hire intangibles 10 times out of 10 over a great resume.
- To Keep Score – The beauty of sports is that you keep score. There is a tangible way to measure performance. I tracked everything when I coached because I was looking for an edge. We track our numbers for the same reasons now – if you don’t keep score you can’t measure how you’re performing and know where to focus your efforts on improvement.
- Sacrifice & A Team Attitude – If you compete in a team sport and want to succeed at a high level you quickly learn to work within the framework of a group, sacrifice some of your individual goals for the good of the team and understand that if you want to be a champion you need to get past selfishness and shortsightedness.
- You Can’t Hide – As a baseball player, if you step in the batter’s box it’s a moment of truth. You either put in the hours in practice or you didn’t. As a coach, when your team takes the field – you either recruited and did the job preparing your team – or you didn’t. Too many people make excuses. Sports teaches you that excuses don’t get you very far.
- Hustle Can Make Up For A Lot – As a player I got to play at a higher level than my talent probably would have taken me because I worked hard. As a coach we developed a nationally ranked program with some of the worst resources in the country. If you’re willing to outwork the competition you can overcome a lot of shortcomings – whether it is talent, resources or anything else.
That’s just a sample of the things being involved in competitive athletics taught me. If you were involved in sports – what did it teach you?
Share the lessons you learned from being involved in athletics below.
Dedicated to your fitness business success,
Pat Rigsby
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Thanks Pat,
Great concepts that we all need to remember! Kind of right up there with the ability to handle adversity would be; You are capable of more than even you believe so don’t stop trying.
Pat,
As much as anything, what competitive athletics taught me was discipline.
Even though there was team scoring, as a wrestler and judo player, we were individually held accountable for our success and failure. It’s great to win team state championships, but we also had our eyes on the individual state titles.
Without a doubt my atletics career transferred into my business career. It gave me the self confidence to start my business and the discipline to stay the course when times were tough.
I did football and track & field through college, and every one of your points hits home. One more that I would add is that what you give up to hit your goals and follow your dreams, the things that other people are not willing to sacrifice, are not that important in the grand scheme of things.
TV, excessive happy hours, doing whatever else besides getting closer to your goals, they are all things that on your deathbed you wished you would have done less of, and focused more on the things that mattered.
Great post Pat. I have found that hard work and preparation have always paid off. Attending every off season workout when you didn’t have to be there and didn’t necessarily get credit for being there, always translated into better performance on the field. Watching game film and studying your weekly opponent allowed for more opportunity on game day. I have found that working early in the morning or late at night, when most people do everything but work has allowed me a competitive edge. Practicing and rehearsing sales presentations and lunch n learns ahead of time make the actual event seem easy. The benefits, I have found whether its a speaking engagement or a sale, gives me the same adrenaline as scoring a touchdown or goal.
I’ll add the ability to handle pressure. When things get tight some people fold and some people focus.
You’ve got no business being an entrepreneur if you crumble when things start to get tough.
I agree totally with the comments on here. There is definitely a difference in people you have been through sports to those who haven’t.
What athletics taught me is you can put all the time in the world in practicing, working out, planning what you are going to do, but they don’t mean anything if you don’t implement a plan of action. You can have the tools in the world if you don’t use them you will never build anything.
Pat,
Great piece and very concise. For me, competing in sports centered on two distinct things:
1) As Greg eluded to, was discipline and work ethic. You learn the basic principles and rewards of not only hard work, but focused attention to detail within that work.
2) Pushing oneself past perceived limits. The desire to compete at a higher level always made me want to “see what I was made of”, so to speak. So I learned to push myself just a little harder or further to see what I could accomplish.
As you mentioned before, just because you have talent does not mean you will make it to a higher level of play or success. Hard work is a common trait among many “gifted” athletes. Often times, ones talent can take them where their character cannot sustain them. We need look no futher than Tiger Woods for an example. failure to build ones character as hard as one works on their talent can have huge repercussions. With great success comes great responsibility.
Far too many people, I believe, fail to see the overall value of life lessons available in competetive sports as it relates to business and life. Thanks for the reminder.
SP
It taught me that everything you do either takes you closer to your goals or puts you further away from them. It taught me to prioritise and sacrifice in order to achieve.
Great post!
I learned how attitude can affect the “game”.
There are positive and negative people on most teams.
You have to make a choice to be one or the other. If you choose to put yourself among the positive people on your team, it can change your entire game-play. You feel pumped up, strong, positive, energized, uplifted, knowing that the team is behind you. You go out and do your best, you cheer for others, you are obedient to your coaching staff and you are looked upon as a winner.
Or, you can go sit on the bench with the “Gloomy Gus” who is complaining about the coach, blaming others for his/her shortcomings, bringing you and everyone else around down to their level.
In life we have to make these same choices. Hopefully we all choose to surround ourselves with the positive and not wallow in self-pity over our failures.
Happy Day!
Football taught me how to handle adversity. When things aren’t going your way, your reaction builds character. If someone knocks you down, then get back up. If you get knocked down 100 times, get back up every time.
I learned how hard you had to work to just be average. I was just an average football player. Didn’t start until my senior year. Always working to get better. Later in life I learned that this paid off far more in the real world. My ability to outwork those more talented than I began to pay off when it was no longer a game. I think that was greatest lesson. You may not be rewarded early and rewarded late.
As a guy with horrible bodybuilding genetics, but determined to step on stage when I was in college, I learned that when you dream big, set a hard deadline, and visualize & attack you can accomplish whatever you want.
Know EXACTLY what you want.
STAY FOCUSED.
Don’t let ANYTHING stop you!
Sports were so important to me. In fact for many years that is what I focused on.
I did well in school because I wanted to play sports. I would shoot baskets outside in Minnesota all winter long. I recall working so hard between my 6th and 7th grade years because I thought I would not be a starter.
In high school I was always one of the best players… Then came college and I learned that I sucked relative to the team. I learned humble confidence is way better than cockiness. I learned that I could give up now and it would have been a lot easier.
Here is a summary of what sports taught me
1. Be super competitive and be your best BUT help others be their best as well.
2. Be great and do not worry about what others think of you.
3. Hard Work, Discipline, and Perseverance!
Hey Pat,
I can definitely relate to this post after playing college and pro baseball…here are a couple things on the mental side of things as you know baseball is such a mental game…
1) Only focus on what you can control- too many people worry about what the “other guy” is doing and waste energy, and time on things they have no control over. Pretty soon you forget how you are or what you are all about…
2) Life is a roller coaster- Nothing ever stays the same and there are no guaruntees so try not to get too excited about the highs and too bummed out about the pros.
3) Stay in the present tense-obviously set goals but try not to get too anxious about what lies ahead or worry about what happened in the past…just focus on what is happening in the now. “A lot of good at bats make up a great season”
Perseverance. Not in the typical sense, but more in the sense of not knowing how close you may be to success (however you define that). There are often times that a single play in a game can change the whole momentum and literally shift all of the momentum. Up until that point you aren’t really sure where the “light” is, but suddenly you realize…in business you never really know where the breaks will come or where you’ll find success on the path, but if you stop before you get there you might only be one play from success!
Pat,
I agree with all of the comments listed above. However, what continues to stand out to me on a daily basis is MENTAL TOUGHNESS. I always considered myself to be a mentally tough competitor and that it was probably the most “intangible” trait of all that had an impact on both my playing and coaching careers. I wish more young athletes and coaches would recognize how valuable each experience is along the way and that mental toughness is a learned skill.
Thanks!
“That’s not wrestling… that’s ‘grab-ass!’
My Middle School Wrestling Coach (Coach D’Agostino) used to say this when we screwed up…
It has stayed with me for a lifetime… He didn’t sugar-coat everything and try to be ‘politically-correct’. It helped me think about ‘going through the motions’ versus ‘doing things right!’
Great post Pat!
Many people dream of being a professional athlete, I learned that if you try to hide from the truth, you never will grow.
Why is truth so important? It is because respect, relationships, and unity all depend on truth. Without truth, I couldn’t trust my teammates and they couldn’t trust me.
Rick Kaselj
http://www.ExercisesForInjuries.com
1. That results are important but not as important as most make them.
If I can win without giving full effort or lose while giving everything, then the result must not be paramount.
2. What is important is that you are on the path to improvement in an area that you love.
I appreciated all that sports taught me and was privileged to compete as a three sport athlete in high school and wrestle five years at the collegiate level.
Dan Gable puts it best, I believe, in his famous quote: “Once you have wrestled, everything else in life is easy.”
I appreciate all of the posts shared and agree with every one of them.
Thank you all.