Life is a Team Sport
It’s rare when a day goes by and I don’t face one of Life’s daily challenges or situations – these may be simple or complex. My initial and usually prevailing response frequently comes from the many formative and enduring experiences discovered through Sports. And, how fortunate I am to have such a treasure trove of rich experiences!
Life’s lessons and those learned from Sports are beautifully linked.
Lucky for me, examples of this beautiful link are plentiful, diverse, and experienced over a fulfilling life of participating in team Sports. And, thankfully for us, my parents valued this link and encouraged my siblings and me to get involved in Sports at an early age.
Reflection on this link reminds me of a plethora of specific, personal, and foundational lessons and much of what I learned is called into action daily. Accordingly, I’ve made a list of topics that qualify as concepts, best practices, character traits, principles, core values, experiences, and lessons-to-live-by that come directly from my Life – Sports experiences. This list is seemingly as long as Joel Embiid’s arm and some of the lessons are as valuable as the late Roy Halladay’s.
Because of this inextricable link and powerful impact in my life, I’m eager to share some of my thoughts and experiences with you in a series of writing which aims to illustrate my thesis.
Through this brief introduction, I’ve already highlighted two concepts that are on my list of topics and they are Goal Setting and Accountability. As an example, setting goals and measuring them regularly are fundamental activities of effective people and successful organizations. Measuring results gives people and organizations a sense for how they are performing and is a basis for accountability towards achieving a desired result. Measuring progress compared to a goal also highlights areas where adjustments could be made along the way in order to improve chances of meeting that goal.
Establishing ambitious Goals and the corresponding Accountability have been consistent components of my experience and success. But these were not something I learned only after graduation. I learned and lived these mission critical practices first through Sports and on many occasions.
Quite vividly, I recall Head Coach, Jerry Berndt, establishing weekly goals for our football team that, if achieved, would lead directly to success – winning college football games. Back in the day, my teammates and I knew these goals so well that you could have woken us up in the middle of the night and we would have concisely recited them to you. And I bet many of my teammates could still list them today! Coach Berndt rigorously reviewed our results against the goals with the entire team after every Penn Football game. This way, we ALL knew immediately how the team performed. This weekly review served to reinforce our commitment to a specific approach and highlight areas that needed adjustment to achieve success against the next week’s opponent.
Understanding this link between Goal Setting and Accountability from both a Life and Sports perspective has made them easy for me to embrace and more relevant to apply. Plus, you almost never forget something you learned from first-hand experience!
Keep an eye out for future articles highlighting Life – Sports links. I hope you enjoy and maybe even relate.
John Vasturia is a proud member of two Ivy League Football Championship Teams and a Co-Captain of the Varsity Baseball Team at the University of Pennsylvania.