- Why do athletes struggle after their life of sports?
- Work on personal growth and development. Build new skills
There comes a time in every athletes life, where they throw their last pitch, shoot their last shot, or make their last tackle. Sometime this happens without the athlete ever knowing it is their last game. One day you will look back 5 years down the road and realize your time has passed and live a life of regrets. You will always think, I should have practiced harder, If only I would have done this better, or maybe I should have listened to my coaches a little more. Maybe you even achieved the goals you wanted in that sport and now are asking yourself, What do I do now?
Whatever it may be, transitioning from being a full-time athlete to a student, a career, or a parent there are going to be hardships along the way. This article will be a mix ofr lessons that took me years to understand in my own life, lessons from others and how you can avoid making the same mistakes.
Why do athletes struggle after their life of sports?
Athletes struggle to have success in other areas of their life because, they have only developed that one skill. Athletes focus most of their time on getting better in order to make it to the next level.
The truth no one tells you about
There is no greater feeling than saving the game, taking the game winning shot, hitting a walk-off bomb, or throwing a game winning touch down. In the eyes of your friends, family and the fans you are literally a God in that moment. People treat you different, like you are going places, they know your name, and want to talk about how great you played in your last outing. You have recruiters scouting you, building reports on your performance, asking you to come visit their campus, or go to dinner to chat about your future.
Now fast forward with me to the point where all of that just fades away. No one is calling you, no one knows your name, no one cares what you are doing with your life or asking you questions. It’s almost as if that life previously, didn’t exist. The only place it still exist is in your own mind. You replay the glory days over and over, you try to bring it up in conversations but it is awkward, and no one really wants to hear about it.
Leaving behind a piece of yourself that made you who you are is no easy task. Moving on from something that you spent your entire life dedicated to practicing every day, eating, sleep, and dreaming about your sport, can reap havoc on your mental well being.
Real Life after sports
For the last 10 years I struggled to find my purpose in life. After my career ending elbow injury, in 2010 I was completely lost. I rehabilitated my elbow back to health, I gave baseball another go, but could never seem to pick up the same momentum as before. Deep down, I knew my career was over but I didn’t want to believe it. Having the belief that I still had a shot at becoming a professional all these years later, held me back from achieving the success I wanted and kept me from reaching my potential in any other field.
What many athletes fail to prepare for is what happens next? You need to have a back up plan.
The Change you need
Dedicate yourself to learning all you can about who you are. You owe it to yourself and the world to share your talents and abilities that have been bestowed upon you. Find you true calling!
When someone quits playing the sport they love, they go through a small and sometimes big identity crisis. It can be difficult to find where you fit in. Your confidence will diminish and you wont have the same drive as you once did.
You have to be the one to decide that change is what needs to happen. To get back to the same level of excitement and motivation you must begin to learn. Knowledge is confidence, knowledge is strength, and knowledge will take you where you want to go.
If you are a struggling former athlete, Pick up a book or two and start learning about yourself. You will be shocked at how much you have to offer the world once you get past your glory days.
Book Recommendation
Dan Sullivan With Dr. Benjamin Hardy wrote a book called ” THE GAP AND THE GAIN “. This book will help you help build a life of happiness, confidence and success. By reading this book you will understand that living in the past means you have a big Gap. Between your past life and where you are in your life right now. That gap is what causes the lack of confidence and failure. The book also provides exercises to help you crawl out of the gap and into the gain. Linked below!
Personal Growth and Development
The number one reason why people don’t feel fulfilled in life, is because they stop growing. They stop reaching for the stars and let their dreams disappear. There are unlimited ways to accomplish your dreams. If you are an athlete you may have dream to play professionally. Sometimes that doesn’t work out the way we plan it. Does that mean you can stop shooting for the stars and wasting away till the end of your life? Looking back at the shoulda coulda woulda and living a life of regrets?
Just because you don’t accomplish a specific dream, doesn’t mean you have to give it up. You can still live the way you want to and create the life you have pictured in your mind. The only difference is going to be how you get there. As soon as you decided that you are done playing sports, do just that. Immediately start learning about who you are and what skills you have.
Each and every one of us is born with a purpose and we all have unique talents and abilities hidden within us. These talents and abilities are not just shown to us but need to be discovered. As an athlete you have spent the majority of your life suppressing those other talents and abilities, because you have been focused on developing your muscles, coordination, stamina, and conditioning your mind to to be the best. These talents are buried deep inside your subconscious and the only way to dig them out is through personal growth and desire.
Desire is the Key to Personal Growth
Everything starts with a desire. Now desire is more than just a want. Desire is having a strong feeling deep in your gut to make something happen. As an athlete you have felt that feeling before. When you wanted something so bad it completely changes the way you play. You are focused, you play harder, faster, and are not concerned about what other people are doing, you are just locked in and want nothing more than to win. That is desire. You have to channel that feeling, once you have that locked in then you start to develop yourself.
As you work on your personal growth you will then start to unlock memories, interest, and Ideas that have been tucked away into your mind. You will start to see amazing things happen in your life and the fact that you were a successful athlete will always be there but it wont be a burden on your mind because you have found a new purpose.
You can still create the life you want, you’ll just have to take a different road to get there!
If you know someone who was an athlete and is having difficulty transitioning into business life, understanding their purpose, and not know where to start, please share this with them. Also if you found this article helpful, please leave a comment.