SPORTS | LIFE | COMPETITIVE | THE PENNY PUB

How Being Not Active in Sports Affects My Life

I missed out on essential life skills

Image sourced from Freepik

“I love to compete. That’s the essence of who I am.”

~ Tiger Woods

Sports has never been my ‘darling’ at all. I have never won in any sports competition, nor have I been the star player in any sports team.

It never makes me feel like a star or a winner in life.

My little physical defect made me conscious about appearing different than my peers. I worried they’d find out and it made me feel like I was an alien. I dared not move a lot and there it goes, a lame player I was. Little did I know that this defect could be fixed with medical advancement. It wasn’t all doom and gloom.

My unhappy and lonely childhood had bruised my inner child seriously. It made me question my existence. My self-worth was almost non-existent. I grew up drifting like a ship without a captain, not knowing what was my purpose in life.

More reasons…

Another reason I wasn’t active in sports was that I was not an energetic person. I was skinny and got tired easily.

As if it wasn’t enough to damage me, being a hardcore introvert worsened my situation. My ineffective communication skills made me a poor team player.

Nevertheless, I grew up being considered healthy, but only on the outside, never on the inside. I’d always been a limping duck with an unhealed, bruised inner child.

How does it affect my life?

My indifferent attitude toward sports projected on my life — the unwillingness to participate and little desire to win. So you can imagine how the first part of my life was till I ‘awakened’ from some painful life events.

Life is such — you need to compete in a healthy way to win. The tangible resource in the world is limited, in a way. I’m not talking about the scarcity mindset here that’s, and I emphasize ‘to compete healthily.’

To me, the notion that there is enough for everyone is like a utopia, only if there are fewer greedy or power-crazy people in the world. It’s more comforting to say that there is enough for everyone, but the amount received varies depending on one’s capability.

Let’s face it, there aren’t many senior positions in a company. Each promotion caters to one employee at a time. There aren’t many people we can fall in love with who are husband or wife material. Businesses need to compete to be successful.

Life is like a sport

Sports, to me, very much reflect one’s attitude in life. If you’re a good sportsman or sportswoman, it usually means you’re a competitive person. Life is like a sport or game, and you need to be the participant, not the spectator.

If you’re afraid to participate strategically in sports, you will not win. The same goes for life. The competitive spirit and perseverance are essential in life. Sports also teach us the lesson of never giving up.

“Every champion was once a contender that didn’t give up.” ~Gabby Douglas

A successful sportsman tells about his mental toughness which is important for a fulfilling life. Life inevitably comes with challenges, and we need to face them head-on. Timidness or avoidance only drags us down to the abyss.

I wished I’d learned this much earlier.

Takeaway

Sports are essential for kids. It trains them to be competitive, strategic, resilient, and tough physically and mentally. These are important attributes for a fulfilling life. They’ll thank their parents for making it an essential part of their growing-up years when they are adults.