If you want to grow, start treating your life as a football game
You have more than 90 mins to turn your life around. But equally, life is short and you owe it to yourself to maximize it by mastering your game and by starting to shoot more.
1) Seek clarity
Are you next to crystal clear on what you want to achieve in life?
One advantage football players might have over the rest of us is clarity on what needs to happen over the next 90 minutes. You too have to create those eureka moments in your life where you eventually realise what it would take to make you and your life complete. You don’t have to worry about the how just yet… But you have to worry about the what and the why.
Once you have sought clarity on those, that’s half of the battle won.
I am now very clear on what I want to achieve in life both professionally and personally and it took me a while to get there...You too can get to that stage. Just ask yourself what are the things that make you tick and what you think it would take to make these things that make you tick happen more often. The other thing you can do is look at the people around you and that you admire – you may or may not know them personally – but you can still ask yourself what it is you admire about them and look at how you can replicate those traits.
If these people are within reach, just book a meeting with them, asap! There’s no time like the present…
2) Master your game
In order to perform on a football pitch, players have to learn how to dribble and juggle and they need to practice, practice and practice again. So be rigorous and embrace all the different opportunities that come your way that will make you learn and master your game.
One thing that’s important to highlight here is that you may not get an e-mail that says: opportunity for you to dribble and juggle. It will just say opportunity.
It’s your job to turn it into an opportunity where you will be able to dribble, juggle and to learn.
I work in data. Sometime, opportunities come my way and the data opportunity or ask is not obvious at all. But if I can see a way to add value with data, I will jump at it and create the opportunity for myself to learn more and practice my craft.
3) Embrace long shots
Successfully passing the ball to another player on the pitch sometimes looks like a very long shot but players still do it and sometimes magic happens as a result.
If you think something is a long shot, try it regardless!
Long shots can take many forms. It could actually be about making contact with someone new that you have heard of and that you’d love to have coffee with to learn more about their experience. They may respond or not… But at worse, you have given this a shot. At best, you have enhanced your life by making a new connection.
In my data line of work, one thing I always try and do is to make connections between all the data points I have access to. It’s very often a long shot but when it works it can add a lot of value as it helps creating relevant business stories with data.
Whatever considered action you take now is an investment for which you will reap the reward at a later stage. Be open, bold and patient.
4) Be disciplined
Think about the amount of discipline an athlete must have in order to earn the right to perform. You too should aim at the same level of rigour and discipline to make the most of your life. This can go from triple checking any e-mail you send for typos and potential misunderstandings (how many e-mails a week do you get with typos and how does that make you feel about the sender?) to learning new things like martial arts or cooking the right foods…
I was always a very disciplined individual when it came to school in my younger days and I am still very disciplined nowadays when it comes to work. However, I realised that discipline needed to be applied to many other aspects of my life as it’s all about balance, not all about work.
But guess what? Being disciplined in many disciplines will help you be better at everything else anyway: it’s a virtuous circle.
Let’s have a look at an example: let’s say you have an important meeting coming up. Of course, the level of prep you do will be the best predictor in terms of how successful the meeting will be. But going for a run on that day and having a very nutritious breakfast will also play an important role…
I introduced a lot more discipline in my life over the past few years around fitness and nutrition as I wanted to get more energy and loose weight. It’s been an excellent financial and time investment. It was not easy to go on my own to that first boxing class and keeping it going. When I started, I was by far the least fit individual in the class. But by the end of year 1, I was as fit as most of the people on there. The level of energy and confidence this has given me has been invaluable. (And yes, you loose tonnes of weight as well)…
The same great experience happened to me with better nutrition guidance. I learnt so much by being coached by qualified nutritionists and giving new food habits a go. I had so many myths in my head when it came to eating the right foods which turned out to be wrong. For example, I was a big believer in carbs for satiety reasons. I could not have been more wrong. I eat far less carbs now and have energy like I have never had before, oh and I am not hungry between meals either!
Adding more discipline in your life will get you a very long way.
Just start shooting
One thing that keeps fascinating me about football is the amount of energy and euphoria football can drive: on the pitch and also in everyone that’s watching the game. Everyone has their own opinion about football and I am by no stretch of imagination an expert at it. But the level of emotion football creates when a player shoots and scores is undeniable and therefore it peaks my interest.
I think we should seek as many euphoric moments as possible to make the most of our very short lives. Think about how you will feel when you start shooting more… Yes, you may miss but there’s always a chance you will score as well or at least get closer to your goals.
Life is too bloody short. You have got to give it a good shot by shooting as many times as you can and creating those euphoric moments for yourself.
The more you shoot, the more you’ll score.
