The Game of Life: College Edition Unstoppable

At one of our recent away trips, we had some down time as a team, so our coach decided to take some of that time for “mental training.” We’ve done this before, and each time is a little different. We’ve worked through ‘classes’ on athlete mentalities, read books or parts of books as a team, and watched various videos on different perspectives, whether that be of athletes, coaches or mental health professionals. The video we watched over the weekend was one from a women’s professional basketball player. Her comments on the right mindset and mentality aligned perfectly with what I’ve been working through myself, so it gave me joy to hear it from someone at a higher level. Her mentality once depended on the outcome of her performance, but she realized throughout her career that athletics doesn’t give you a reason to base your mindset and overall attitude on whether or not you succeed. This is even more important for team settings, because one player who acts out due to failure brings the rest of the team down with them. I was talking to my parents about this afterwards, and summed up the whole thing with a simple phrase: “if we worked as hard at being good people as we did at our sport, we would be unstoppable.” I have already learned that my sport does not define me, yet I interact with people daily who haven’t quite grasped that concept. But when you really think about it, the things we learn in this sport, or in any event, can be used for the rest of our lives. I aim to be the best teammate I can be, because at the end of the day, I’m not only supporting my team as needed, I’m working on being the best person I can be. That just happens to be in a sport setting right now. Once I graduate, I will work as hard at being a good person as I do at my job. I’m sure you’ve met coworkers who are solely focused on achieving their goals in the workplace, and they may come across on the meaner side in doing so, simply because that is all they are focused on. Maybe you’ve been that person a time or two. At the end of the day, achieving the goals you set doesn’t just happen if you are only focused on them. To be unstoppable, you must also work on yourself in the process.