Lessons I've Learnt From Sports

The Beginning

Ever since I can remember, I have had a deep love for sports. From a very young age, my two favourite games were playing with my toy cars and kicking a football around the garden. I would spend my younger years riding bikes, climbing trees, building tree houses and playing endless hours of football with the neighbourhood children. If it was raining outside? FIFA was the alternative.

As I hit puberty, I found myself being a strong swimmer, falling in love with basketball and using boxing training as mind therapy. Still, football was my number one sport, if I wasn't playing it on the weekends, my father and I would be travelling around the island of Cyprus to follow our beloved football team, Anorthosis.

What did I learn from Sports?

Going into my twenties, I became an active member at the gym, I regularly jogged along the seafront and spent countless hours shooting hoops, as well as playing football once or twice a week. I learnt many vital lessons that I have carried through all these years, whether that's in my personal life or professional life.

You're not always going to win

Like in life, you're not always going to win. Being a good sportsman shows on being a good loser as well as a good winner. Being bitter isn't pleasant.

Determination & Ambition - Hard Work pays off!

This principle won’t change. While we can work smart and strategic, we all need to push ourselves beyond our comfort zone if we want to achieve something outstanding. Time, energy and enthusiasm; equals success.

Teamwork & Trusting others

Nothing quite teaches us teamwork and trust as much as team sports. Players, in spite of their talent, have to trust the entire team to succeed. In life as well, we should learn to let go and trust people to help us out. If they fail, then we have to trust them again, as they trust us. Adjusting and forming relationships to people you wouldn't usually gel with, is also a skill picked up from team sports.

Discipline & Resilience

In life, one of the most important things is to learn how to train yourself to know your limits and goals. Having discipline helps you achieve success, better and faster. 

Sports teaches you to get back up and keep going; to not let anything or anyone stand in your way. One of the strongest skills sports has taught me is resilience and the 'Never Give Up DNA'. Whether my team is winning or losing, if there are a couple of minutes on the clock, I will make sure I give everything on the field/court. Knowing that I didn't give it my all, is a very disappointing feeling to digest.

Respect

Self-Respect as well as respecting the people around you. This goes for all aspects of life, with respect to your parents, peers, competition, coaches, managers and authoritative figures. From a young age, my mother would tell me to respect myself first, if you don't respect yourself then how can you respect others?

End-Game

Sports can teach us a fair bit about life itself, work-life and social life. Sports can support your mind at the toughest of times and expand your creativity at the happiest of times. Sports and exercising will help maintain a healthy body, mind and soul.

Here's a video of Kawhi Leonard hitting a buzzer-beater in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. An iconic moment for the Toronto Raptors winning their first-ever NBA Championship. Resilience.