Thursday, February 13, 2014
Discipline is key to success. Without discipline, nothing would get done. It takes discipline to do homework, study for exams, lose weight, gain muscle, and to improve in essentially any aspect of life. One great lesson I learned from my time in sports was how to discipline myself. For example, in high jump, there are many drills that at the time seem pointless and useless. When I was a freshman, all I wanted to do was practice doing full actual jumps over a bar. When my coach would insist on drilling isolated parts of my jump, I couldn't see the end goal he had in mind. They all just seemed like stupid drills. However, after my years of jumping, I discovered that the tiniest technique flaw could be the difference between qualifying for the state meet at a 6'4" clearance and not even meeting the district qualifying standard at a 5'10" clearance. I began to spend more time drilling and drilling isolated parts of my technique. This took an incredible amount of discipline, because even then all I wanted to do was full jumps to receive that instant gratification. I think this concept can be applied to any kind of progression in life. In order to become good at your job, you have to improve bit by bit, piece by piece. The discipline to be able to improve without instant gratification is a life lesson that I have learned through my experiences in sports, and I think anyone else who has learned this lesson early can say that it's been very helpful.
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Sports have played a huge part in my life. I played football for four years, and lacrosse for six. I attribute a lot of the work ethic I have to participating in these sports. I like what you said about discipline; it is very important for us to learn how to be disciplined in life. I can remember lots of times when I was discouraged, yet I pressed on and it taught me how to fight until the end. I like reading what you say on your blog. It reminds me of the good experiences I had in high school playing sports. You do a good job at presenting what sports can teach us in your blogs. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteAndrew! I loved this blog post, it spoke so much truth. Discipline is such a huge part in becoming successful. Without discipline, we wouldn't get anything done! We have to be disciplined to get good grades, keep ourselves healthy, be optimistic, and to be successful. Thank you for sharing your experience in track with having to be disciplined to learn to do high jump well. It's something I can connect to; I did track all throughout high school as well. For me, being disciplined enough to stretch was my problem, and I eventually had to learn by failure that I needed to discipline myself to stretch. I ended up getting hurt in a race because I hadn't been consistent with stretching. Thank you for emphasizing the importance of discipline! Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, great post. I fully agree with you. I played football for eight years. I also had to do so many repetitive drills and they just seemed so pointless. All sports require hard work, dedication, and discipline. Playing football for so long really taught me some great life lessons. If you want to succeed at something, put your mind to it, and you'll accomplish great things. My senior year, I wanted to have my best season yet. Through hard work and discipline, I was able to have a great season; it felt amazing to see my hard work pay off. Your blog posts are really motivating and get me all pumped up. Since you were a high school athlete, you know what it takes. Thanks for writing this post.
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