As long as I can remember basketball has always played a big role in my life. It has helped me become the person that I am today.
I picked up a basketball when I was eight years old after getting introduced to it by my friends and from that moment on I fell in love with the sport.
As a young kid growing up in a rough neighbourhood there was no stopping me playing basketball every day, either at my backyard or the outdoor local basketball courts.
At the time I had no idea the life lessons that basketball was teaching me about discipline, failure, hard work, perseverance and the ability to bounce back.
As I got older, I started to realise that basketball was more than a game. What basketball taught about life will stay with me for the rest of my life.
I thought I would share the life lessons that I learned from playing basketball, maybe these lessons can help you on this journey we call life.
Hard Work Beats Talent
Most people believe that talent is the only thing you need to become successful at anything in life, the matter of fact is talent is just a head start, nothing more. There is no success without hard work, you cannot replace hard work with anything.
After playing basketball for a couple of years when I was younger, I became so confident and arrogant that I stopped practising and rely on my talent alone because I was so assured that I didn’t need to because I was so ahead of the kids my age.
One day our team played a team that was at the bottom of the ladder, I was so assured that we would beat this team easily. Well, that was not what happened, I had the worst game of my life.
My team got their ass kicked and I was humbled from that day I learned that I cannot rely on my talent alone, I needed to work hard and that talent alone isn’t enough to achieve my goals and dreams.
Value Your Health
One of the most important life lessons that I picked up from basketball was learning to value my body and health. I learned early on that if I wasn’t in great shape taking care of my body and health, I wouldn’t be able to play the game that I love.
This lesson was a game-changer for me because I learned the importance of keeping good health. To this day, I’m in good shape because of basketball. The game demands a lot from you so it’s so vital to be ready and in shape.
Grab Every Opportunity
“You missed 100% of the shots you don’t take”
This may be a popular saying in basketball but it’s so true, if you don’t grab every opportunity that comes to you, you will always miss out and live to regret it.
One thing that I always remember is that you will always miss 100% of the shots that you do not take.
I had to get over the fear of failure real quick because I had to grab every opportunity that came to me. This led to the realisation that failure is part of success, most famous basketball players such as LeBron James, Magic Johnson and even Michael Jordan, all had to deal with failure.
Pain plus reflection equal progress.
Those players wouldn’t be the players that they are today without the failures they experience, there is no success without failure.
As shown by the famous quote by Michael Jordan “ I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed’.
