9 THINGS YOU LEARN BEING A LIFETIME ATHLETE

Sports.

Life.

It’s all such a wonderful cycle. There are no guarantees as to how it will end and there’s certainly no easy path or template, but if you stay in the game, stick with your program and never give up on your goals, you will find fulfillment (and maybe even a spot on that podium).

9 THINGS YOU LEARN BEING A LIFETIME ATHLETE

The inner athlete never dies, it only evolves. The habits and patterns you develop today are the foundation for future goals. Be intentional about what you create and never stop learning.

Goals deferred, or important games lost, will sting. Sometimes that sting doesn’t go away, ever. You can reconcile it in your life and you can move on, but that sting teaches us our goals matter. It teaches us that not achieving something we’ve fought and trained for is an important part of learning and growing.

Best thing to take the edge off the sting is to get up and go again. You have to keep striving.

It’s important not to mistake your deferred dreams for someone else’s current dreams. We each have our own. Let others dream their dreams and keep yours in a safe place for you – even the ones that don’t happen.

The most epic things comes from the most basic people. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. Grandiose “epicness” is not sustainable. Don’t chase it.

Chase consistent work and good character instead.

Age is a number. It’s the number that tells you how many years you have played or trained. How many years you haven’t. How many years you took to figure things out once you stopped playing. How many years it took to get back in the gym after an injury. Though it’s a number, it’s not a prison sentence nor does it define you, so don’t treat it like one.

Whether you’ve won championships together or lost too many matches to count, your teammates are always your teammates. The result is not as important as what you did together during that season. The hours training, the hours traveling, the hours doing work when nobody else was doing work – that is where life happens. Some victories cannot be measured in points.

Winning at life doesn’t always show up on a scoreboard.

Belief in yourself only comes because someone else believed in you first and there are more of those people than you think.

You are only as strong as you are stable. In life. In sports. In relationships (also in your scapula).

When you show up and work every single day, hard work just becomes part of the equation. It’s easy math.

Priscilla Tallman is a freelance writer in Phoenix, AZ. She has an undergraduate degree in Psychology and graduate degree in Clinical Psychology. She has written for FloVolleyball, Volleyball Magazine, The Art of Coaching Volleyball, Sweat RX, Gorgo Fitness Magazine, CrossFit Fury and the CrossFit Games. She is married with two children and in a former life played collegiate and professional volleyball. She currently coaches high school volleyball (indoor and beach) and continues to learn and grow in hopes of inspiring the next generation of amazing athletes.