5 Keys to Excellence in your Sports Career
Achieving excellence in your sports career is definitely an integral part of becoming satisfied and fulfilled in life. We want all our dreams and visions to blossom, making us feel a sense of fulfillment when we get to the peak of our careers and become financially stable and satisfied with our achievements. Every star athlete started out as a rookie. The only difference between you and them is opportunity and TIME.
What you do with the time you have right now (the next few years) to get your career from where it is currently to where you want it to be (in the not-so-distant future) will determine how far you will go. I have outlined 7 great steps (or nuggets, if you’d prefer to call them that) you can use as stepping stones to lead you to excellence and growth in your career. These tips can also be applied to your personal life to achieve similar results. When you use them as part of your comprehensive strategy for your life, these simple nuggets have the potential of contributing tremendously to the achievement of your goals and all that you desire.
Tip #1 Make a Commitment to Excellence
Do you know what a commitment is? A commitment is a firm and resolute DECISION to follow a chosen course of action, and see it through to completion, against all odds. The first and most critical step to achieving any considerable success in life is making a decision. Ask yourself these questions and answer them as honestly as you can. Be true to yourself:
- What do I want to make out of my life?
- How far do I want to go in my career?
- How far am I willing to go to achieve my goals?
These are three vital questions every athlete (and everybody else) should ask themselves. After answering those questions truthfully, it is now time to make a decision. Make a decision RIGHT NOW about what you want to achieve and write it down on a sheet of paper. Then take out some time to strategize and work out ways for achieving the plan you just wrote. Write them down immediately, no excuses.
A passionate and firm commitment to excellence is the first (and most crucial) set to achieving success in any endeavor. It’s not enough for you to merely say you want to be great; you must make a firm commitment.
In your personal life also, whether you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, manager, or employee, you have to commit yourself to achieve excellence in your chosen profession. When you’re able to commit yourself to achieving excellence, you will grow in your daily life as well as professionally.
Step #2 Sign up for a life of continuous learning and improvement
No matter how skilled or proficient at what you do currently, there is always room for improvement! Excellence is a life-long obsession that you must go after it with all you’ve got. Learning and constantly improving at sports can be achieved with the help of other people. Every athlete you meet has something new to teach you, and you have some unique method of doing something that they can learn as well.
A firm resolve and commitment to excellence will require continuous learning – learning from your own experiences and learning from others.
Tip #3 Network with Successful Athletes
You can keep your skills sharp by having conversations with other athletes that are senior to you or generally have more experience than you do. You can speak with your coach if you have one. Alternatively, you can also read the latest books, attend sports coaching classes or organized fitness training courses, or even participate in a city marathon etc. This will give you the opportunity to meet new people and share ideas and experiences that will further your knowledge and exposure as an athlete. In your leisure time, you should frequently evaluate yourself and find new skills as well as develop key skills that require improvement.
By equipping yourself with more sports knowledge, you will receive the rewards of continued and sustained growth and achieve excellent sports performance. You can also inspire others to seek excellence and growth in the process. Your life really starts to change when you get out of your comfort zone and seek more knowledge in your career.
Tip #4 Stay Physically, Mentally, and Spiritually Fit
A physically fit and healthy body helps to nurture a healthy mind and vice versa. Spiritual balance and strength can stabilize both your body and mind. Cultivating a healthy faith in God reinforces our commitments to overcome difficulties and focus on results rather than challenges.
You could sign up for a mental wellness program, schedule regular checkups with your sports physician, and pray or meditate daily.
It’s also very important to set out a daily time for leisure. Mental, physical and spiritual fitness can contribute tremendously to daily growth and help you to achieve peak performance in your career. It’s all about balance.
Tip #5 Communicate Effectively
When networking or interacting with other athletes, communicate effectively by remembering these three letters ALC. They stand for Ask, Listen and Clarify. When discussing with someone you should always ask questions to learn about their needs and desires. Then, you listen to them empathetically, not just listening to hear but to understand. After you have listened properly, you can then clarify on what you heard by rephrasing and repeating what the speaker has said. If needed, you could also rephrase a question then ask for additional questions.
Effective listening is the key to effective communication. If you’re going to be hanging around pro or experienced athletes, you must listen more than you speak. In this way, you’ll learn more. Also, pay close attention to the body language of the speaker. Look for non-verbal cues that reveal feelings behind spoken messages to give you a more accurate understanding of what the person is trying to say, and then ask relevant questions to clarify. Effective communication with a more experienced athlete will lead to career excellence and fulfillment.
Last Words
These are only a few tips you can apply to improve your career. There are many more you will discover as time goes on. Taking a definite step to excel and move your career forward will set the basic process in motion to bring you rewarding outcomes in the future.
