How sport shapes your life - 9 lessons

In this 6 monthly note of mine, its time to share important lessons from my passion for sport.

At the age of 8 years, I was put into a boarding school. It was a new world for me. To be taken off from the comforts of home and straightaway dropped in a place full of strangers was a rude shock. In the initial days when the lights would go off in the dormitory at night, all of us would just howl and remember our mother particularly. But as we settled down and relationships got built, one striking thing happened. A keen interest in all sorts of sport started shaping my personality in many ways. Be it cricket, football, hockey or athletics, I started dabbling in each one of them and would invariably make it to the class team. This love for sport continued into my next school where I became a day scholar. A deeper interest in cricket developed. But as live sport broadcasting grew in our country, the interest in many other sport developed and today one savors many of them. This interest in sport helped in shaping my professional life in many ways. Read on the lessons learnt from them.

1. Leadership lessons

Any team sport provides you the opportunity to lead. The experience of leading a bunch of enthusiastic team members always comes handy as one grows in life. You need to stand out to become a leader. That learning stays for life. Linked to this is the lesson around sportsmanship spirit which many leaders demonstrate through their sheer maturity.

2. Team spirit lessons

Equally important as the first lesson is the exposure of being a team player in a team sport. It makes you feel important that you have been chosen for a team to represent an institution or a district or a state or a country. The role of either being in the playing team or the reserve team is a humbling experience.

3. Competing lessons

Every sport is about competition. You got to beat someone to win something. That may sound harsh. But it plays well in the reality of professional life too where as the pyramid narrows at the top, only few make it. Having said that, sport also teaches of draws at times where we acknowledge that we are equals in so many ways.

4. Achievement lessons

Playing sport has layers. From being an absolute newcomer who is learning the ropes to getting selected into a B team and then to make it to the A team is an overwhelming experience. This keeps the hunger going throughout the life. The bar keeps getting raised.

5. Failure lessons

Building on the competitive aspect of sport is about losing a game. How one copes up with a loss defines the character of a person. Does one cry and blame others or does one own up. And does one learn from the mistakes. Every outing out there has a failure sword hanging on the head.

6. Comeback lessons

Sport can lead to injuries. It can also lead to loss of form in many ways. But it's the ability to overcome these that shape up on how resilient one is. And that shows up later in life as one encounters ups and downs of life. Making a comeback is a mindset which very few are able to manage.

7. Staying power lessons

In sport, endurance is the name of the game. Attach to that the stamina aspect and you've the real test of staying in the game. Obstacles and losses will happen. It is how you navigate them makes all the difference. There is a timeline at all corner and you need to have the ability to survive them.

8. Temperament lessons

A large part of succeeding in sport hovers around the temperament that you carry. Imagine playing in a packed stadium and to yet stay focused becomes a high point. How does one handle all the noise speaks volumes about the person. It is very easy to get distracted by many trappings in life. Few are able to concentrate and grow.

9. Underdog lessons

Perhaps the best lesson from sport. When no one expects you to do do well and then you excel is an experience very few go through. But it leaves behind a deep learning of self belief. That helps in creating a fulfilling life. You stay confident and never ever flip towards overconfidence. That's the key.

So those were the lessons from sport that have stayed with me through my childhood, my growing years and then, my working years. Till date, I find sport a huge leveler in many ways. Watching any live sport is fascinating and each one of them keeps reinforcing the lessons listed above.