Speaker: When I work with athletes, one of the first things we talk about is, we talk about why they play their sport, because this is what feeds the passion and commitment for what you do, because one thing I've learned from my years of doing this work with athletes is, lead-level athletes have a love/hate relationship with their sport. They do not love it all the time. It's difficult. There are times they hate their sport. There is no question about it.
One of the things that becomes critical is, to fuel this passion and commitment for what you're doing, you have to keep some meaning and fulfillment in what you're doing. What I would like you to do is, I want you to just try this exercise for a moment. Raise your hand up like just for five times, okay One, two, three, four, five, great!
Now, what I want you to do is, I want you to raise that hand slowly up in the air. Once you get the arm fully extended, what I want you to do is, I want you to feel the stretch up through the intercostal muscles of your ribcage up through the armpit area, up through your upper arm, the elbow, create an inner space in your elbow, up through the forearm, the wrist, the finger tips, feel that lengthening, feel that extension and release.
How much of our training is just this? There is no purpose, there is no meaning, but when we put meaning in it, the experience changes. It empowers us. It's important because what the meaning does is, it provides direction, it provides motivation and it provides purpose in what we're doing, because we have to remember that sport by definition is putting unnecessary obstacles in our way. What do I mean by that? Look at the hurdler and track.
Well, why does the hurdler go over the hurdles, why don't they go around them? Unnecessary obstacles are what makes sports so powerful, but we have to put the meaning in that task and that becomes important because when you have meaning and you have passion, it helps you deal with the adversity that goes with performance.
In my 30 years of teaching at the university, my first 15 years, I would have students come to my office and they would say, Ken (ph), I'm not sure I want to stay in school. I would sit down and talk with them. I would counsel them. I would work with them and then we'd come back and we'd meet after about three or four meetings.
I really wasn't too good at talking students into staying in school. One day I shared my frustrations with a friend and he said, "Hey Ken! Try this." And what I did, student comes in my office, "Ken, I'm not sure I want to be in school" I say, "Hey! Drop out". And they go, "Wait Ken, but I have this problem and that problem and that problem" and I said, "Well, it's not time for your to be in school, it's okay."
Then they look confused and they walk to the door and when they put their hand on the door to go out of room, I say to them, "Hey! Remember these four words when you leave campus, it's going to help you out; do you want price?" Once the person is gone out and they've worked a while in the work role, doing that type of job, then they want to come back to school.
I've had those students return and come to my office and say thank you, because now they have the passion for what they're doing and that makes all the difference. In sport, you have to know why do you play the game.
Player1: I play my sport because I love the feeling of competition and being able to go out there and actually compete against other people and have the ability to win a match.
Player2: I love the challenge of the sport. There is both individual and team challenges that you have to face within a sport and I think that's a great part of playing.
Player3: For me, I like to play soccer because I like to play with my friends and be part of a team and I like setting goals together by myself and working hard to achieve them.
Player4: I love swimming when it's kind of the end of the season and I'm in really, really good shape, so right before a big need. I'm swimming so fast that when I finish, it's almost like I'm pushing the wall. I'm really glad and really fast flow.
Player5: I play my sport because I love to be part of something that's bigger than myself. I like making my parents proud and working towards a goal and achieving that.
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