I was never a sporty child. Not for the lack of trying. I tried as hard as I could, but it just never came to me naturally. I was slow. I wasn’t flexible. I was weak. I was clumsy. I was short (that one is true till now, cannot cheat the genes here). Feistiness and strong will took me only as far as not to be picked last to the team. The funny thing is that I love to move, I have been a fan of multiple sports through the years and I tried many disciplines. Over time, being physically active became the most essential part of my lifestyle and the key to my well-being. And I started realizing how much it has shaped my character, with the key lessons I apply in the business environment. Here are my top learnings.
- Sport has taught me how to set up long- and short-term goals.
Most of people when they start any physical activity – be it dancing, be it martial arts, be it swimming they immediately imagine themselves in two-weeks time winning a gold medal on at least the neighborhood championship. Well… I have bad news for those. Ain’t gonna happen unless you compete against similar lunatics. As in business, you need to work your way up from humble beginnings. When I decided to run a marathon some years ago, I knew I won’t be able to do it tomorrow. I gave myself monthly preparation goals, set the targets for development and the routines that will help with that. Very often, when I recruit the new, young people to my team I see the same hunger and eagerness. Which is great. But to pace yourself is even more important. Passion needs to be met with reasonable goal planning. Otherwise it can end either with burnout or frustration. Which brings me to lesson number two…
2. Nothing taught me resilience better than sport.
I did not run that marathon. I sprained my ankle a month before and did not manage to recover until the date of the race. It feels horrible. To be working for something so hard, to see it dangling right in front of your nose and miss it. This is one of the hardest lessons – some things are just beyond our control. Life is unfair. But this is where your ability to bounce back is shaped. Shake it off and keep running, set up a new goal, understand what went wrong and if there is something you can use moving forward.
I still went to this race by the way. I went there because we were preparing for it as a team, which brings me to lesson number three…
3. There is no sports discipline ‘better’ than the other. And there is no one good at all of them. Value different skills that people around you have.
I mentioned that I was not the last kid to be picked to the team though sometimes I was surely physically weakest. Do you know, why? Because I was the feisty one. My team mates knew that I am the one who will be relentlessly running around, cheering for them, giving them a hand when they fall and keeping the spirits up. I knew I could not jump on the volleyball pitch as high as my (muuuuch) taller friends. But I trained myself well on passing the ball and setting it up for scoring the point. So I became a good asset for the team. Each of us has a different role to play in a team. Each of us is unique. Maximizing team synergy and playing to those difference is what makes a team successful. But to do that you need to move to lesson number 4.
4. Sport has taught me to look at myself fairly and identify my strengths and weaknesses.
As said, I tried quite some disciplines – for different reasons. Some of them, because they were easily accessible – like running. I quickly discovered it bores me. Other because it was played at school, like volleyball or football. Which made me realize I am quite too short for or I do not like strong physical contact when playing. And other because they were popular like skating. For a clumsy person as I was, this one was a particularly painful lesson. Over time this really made me apply simply rule of brutal self-honesty. Assessing my strengths and weaknesses and evaluating which of the first are the ones I can apply to my advantage, which of the latter I can improve and work on and which I just have to accept. It makes you become more realistic about expectations in your business or career too. Far too often we are delusional about our own or own brand/company grandeur. And too often in performance reviews we focus on fixing ‘weaknesses’ instead of playing to strengths of our teams. Keeping it real is what can save us… Because of lesson number 5.
5. The only way to keep going in sport and work is to enjoying the way
Why are we doing all this if we do not have fun on the way? I have seen too many burn out people losing motivation in the middle of the career asking themselves the very same questions… why… what for… what is the point of all this. My favorite activities in the world are hiking and diving. I have not beaten any deep-water diving records (yet) neither I conquered the crown of the earth (in the making). But every hiking or diving trip I took is carved in my memory. Every summit I reached was such a cherished moment, but the way there is what I learnt from and enjoyed the most. Preparation, sharing the struggles with my friends, ups and downs, things we have seen on the way… You never know what happens in life, if it is written in the stars for you to live 45 or 90 years. Maybe you will be the next CMO of a great company. Maybe you won’t. But if you are measuring yourself only in the 0-1 scale then you are up for a harsh life. True pleasure and pride can come from watching yourself grow, pushing your limits and acquiring new skills. And having fun with it.