Sports teach us life’s greatest lessons

This archived article was written by: David Osborne Jr.

Sports may be the greatest invention that mankind ever came up with, sure there may be better and more practical inventions like the wheel, smart phone or to college students the microwave, but sports epitomize life in almost every facet. Susan Casey said, “Sports remain a great metaphor for life’s more difficult lessons. It was through athletics that many of us first came to understand that fear can be tamed; that on a team the whole is more than the sum of its part; and that the ability to be heroic lies, to a surprising degree, within.”
It is amazing to think about athletics this way because athletics simply does not discriminate. Sports do not care about age, race, gender, how poor you are or if you came from money. Instead all that matters is that you are willing to give everything that you have to it. An athlete must ask themselves continuously, “Have I given my best effort, Is there more that I can do to ensure success?” among other questions.
Fortunately the same applies for success in life. Life, like athletics, does not care about your back story, where you come from, what you have or not, rather, the only thing that matters in life is whether or not you have done your best and given all that you can, because that will determine how you are remembered. This a crucial life lesson to learn early and the beginning of college is an excellent time that we can make sure this is lesson that is ingrained in our minds.
As human beings, it is important to remember that we will succeed if we are willing to do everything in our power to achieve success. This means studying until it seems that you can cram no more information into your brain, it also means late nights where you put away the desire for instant gratification for the knowledge that effort put in now will lead to a better result later.
We all know that to be successful it is going to take hard work. In life nothing comes easy, instead it comes through blood, sweat pain and often-time tears. For athletes this means hitting the gym, practicing the same thing over and over again until they can do the drill in their sleep knowing that they have done it when they have put their body to its limits and been successful. This means that one day when they are tired and that their body is already at its limits, they will again be able to be successful. Knowing that they have done it already.
Vince Lombardi, late Green Bay Packers coach and namesake of the trophy presented to the NFL Champion every year said, “I believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious.”
When we are willing to push ourselves to our limits no matter where, when or what the circumstances are we will be able to see clearly that we have tamed our own fears and dismissed all shadows of doubt in our minds. Even more importantly we will be able to see that we all have the ability to be heroic and do legendary things.
Things that we will one day be remembered for the things that we have accomplished, not the things we were to afraid to try or the times we were unsuccessful.
Now is the time for us to live and push our boundaries. Set our goals and reach them and finally realize that athletics were inspired to help us realize that anything can be done when we want to achieve it.
Go out today become victorious and become heroic, it is already inside of you.