Here’s Why Your Sports Experience Is So Valuable In Life

As a kid growing up in the inner city, you never really understand how much sports can change your life until it actually does.

And I don't mean from a standpoint of the places they can take you, the fame you can get or the money you can make. I mean that playing sports can literally change the way you think, and act.

They can literally change your perspective on certain things and shape you to become a better all-around person.

As athletes, we can be very narrow-minded sometimes and only see what's right in front of us.

The nextpractice.

The nextgame.

The next opportunity to compete.

It's all about looking forward with barely enough time to stop and think about the past which in most cases can be a good thing. But when it's all said and done and the past is all you have to look at as far as the game goes, what do you do next?

A better question is, what is the best thing to do?

From my personal experience, I look back at my athletic career with very little regret because the entire time I saw sports as a means to something greater. Sports wasn't the end. It was only the beginning and what I took away from the game has been incredibly impactful in life afterward.

I think that all athletes can learn from what the game has taught them if they stop to look back and discover what that is exactly.

Playing sports, especially at a high level, is an invaluable life experience and there are several reasons why.

What Sports Has Taught You

1. You have the discipline of showing up and doing the work every day. Your entire life you’ve put consistent work into your sport. When you’re trying to be good at anything else in life, the formula is no different. You need the persistence of doing it over and over to achieve success. You've already done in one avenue, so why so you can do it again?
2. You have a competitive nature. You’re willing to do what it takes to win. Sports isn’t the only place in life where you’ll face real competition. In fact, the competition is probably harder in the real world because at least in sports you actually know who you’re opponent is. Life is about winning, producing and results, period. In the real world there are no 8th place trophies, but as an athlete, you know how to compete and win which will help you with whatever you choose to do outside of sports.
3. You know how to market, brand and promote yourself. You know how to separate yourself and sell yourself. This shows that you have confidence and self-belief. People talk about how much they hate sales, but we’ve been selling ourselves a majority of our lives. We sell to schools on why they should accept us. We sell to our girlfriends or boyfriends on why they should be with us. We sell to jobs on why they should employ us. Everything in life is about selling and as an athlete, to get to the next level whether that’s college or pro you have to or had to sell yourself. This skill is invaluable no matter what you do.
4. You know about teamwork. You know how to come together with people from different backgrounds to achieve a common goal. If you want to make money, you’ll have to work with and deal with people for the rest of your life. Unless you played tennis, golf or any other one person sport, you’ve played with teammates and people from different backgrounds, religions, and ethnicities. You’ve learned to get along with and collaborate with people, even though you might not like them. People are the ROI of life. To get anywhere, you have to know how to work with and deal with people.
5. You know about taking advantage of opportunism. You know how to use everything that comes your way. You can figure out how to deal with different situations and figure out ways to get things done. As an athlete, you know that no situation is perfect. You’ve played in games when nothing is going your way and you’ve played on teams in which you didn’t get the opportunities you felt you might have deserved. But if you made it through this then you know how to use what you got to get through any situation. Life will inevitably throw things in your way and you have to know how to react. As an athlete, you know how to do this instinctively. 
6. Last but not least, other people and kids admire you because you followed your goal, vision, and dreams. It's not about you being better than everybody it's about you being different and standing out. You've done something that other a majority of people haven't done and that audacity, for lack of better words, will give you the confidence and belief that you’re able to accomplish anything that you set your mind to in life.

What To Do With What You Know

When you’re taking the next step in life, you might not know what to do or what that looks like.

The most important thing that you can do is believe that everything that you've been through has prepared you for whatever comes next.

While going into your next career, you're not going to have the experience or understanding of how to effectively transition into that role, but with your athletic experience, you'll be able to navigate through any challenges you'll be up against.

You'll be able to compete.

You'll be able to work hard.

You'll be able to work with other people.

Most of all, you'll be able to survive no matter what happens because of these key intangibles.

As an athlete, you are more prepared for the next step and the real world, than you realize.

If you look at everything you've been through during your athletic career, you'll see that all of it has already given you the confidence to move on to whatever life takes you.

Malcolm Lemmons is a former professional athlete turned entrepreneur, author, and speaker. He is the founder of Players Point Agency and host of Players Point Podcast. He has been featured in the Huffington Post, TVOne, ABC & WJLA. To check out more from Malcolm, visit his website at www.malcolmlemmons.com or connect with him on Twitter & Instagram.