What in the world is the purpose of playing sports? If you think about it, all you’re doing is showing how fast or strong you are, or in many cases, trying to place a ball into a certain area…….over and over again. Yea, the competitive nature of sports can be addictive. The limelight after a great play or a victory is great too….. But in my opinion, sports have a much deeper value. There are 6 convenient life lessons that I learned from playing basketball.
1 – Harness Emotion To Drive Passion
Passion and emotion are two separate things. It might be hard to tell them apart in your head because they can both be pretty intense, and one drives the other. Passions don’t exist without emotion…Intense emotion, that is.
Emotion can be extremely hard to control, especially in the battlefield of a ball game, or in life, when things aren’t going your way.
Whether it’s winning basketball games or doing well at your job…..You can’t let negative emotion effect your passions, or else you won’t reach your potential. Funneling your emotion into performance is a mind game. But you have to be able to do it to succeed.
2 – Failure Is Inevitable
We’ve ALL come short at some point, in one way or another. If you’re in this game of life long enough you’ll experience countless failures. The worst thing you can do is dwell on them.
My basketball coaches used to tell me….”You messed up? So what!!! What’s the next play?”
You can’t let 1 failure cause numerous others just because you decided to sit there and pout about it, instead of moving on to the next thing.
Michael Jordan is undoubtedly the best player to ever play the game of basketball and he had hundreds of failures.
Thomas Edison failed thousands of times trying to create the light bulb! That means he had to pick himself back up and try again over, and over, and over!
If you want to be great at something you have to learn to embrace failure and learn from it.
3 – Comradery
Basketball is a team game to the core, and you have to learn to work with others to play. To be good at what you do, you have to care about everyone else around you wearing the same colored jersey.
Very seldom does someone find success on their own. Humans are social creatures and we count on the people around us for love, support, and guidance.
MJ won 6 championship rings in his career, but without Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and the rest of his team there would have been a different story to tell.
4 – Fitness
It’s pretty obvious that you have to be in great shape to play sports at a high level.
Same goes for life. You only have one life and one body. Might as well keep your body finely tuned and feeling good if you plan on sticking around for a while!
5 – Take Advantage Of Every Opportunity
In a basketball game, every time your team has the possession of the ball it’s an opportunity to take a shot and score. Each possession is so valuable, sometimes a single one can dictate a win or a loss.
Never take any opportunity for granted. In life, when the ball is in your hands, take advantage of it. Never burn bridges with people, keep your options open, and work your butt off every single day to get where you want to be.
6 – Success Never Takes A Red Eye Flight
Be patient! Success will never come over night. And it doesn’t come at all to the people who just wish for it. Winning basketball games is tough, and life can be even more ruthless. You have to have the mentality that NOTHING will be just handed to you.
It’s a long process, but guess what? You have your whole life ahead of you. It’s all about enjoying the journey and watching yourself grow.
I hope you liked this article about the 6 convenient life lessons that I learned from basketball. Please take a second to share it on facebook with your friends. I bet you’ll like 4 Ways To Maintain Bodyweight And Strength Throughout An Athletic Season.
About Adam Pegg
