GAMEPLAN is an official ADIDAS Website that aims to upgrade its readers’ work-life through Sports and Creativity practices.
Basically, really very connected with ENTOS project, which strongly believes that Sport can develop essential Entrepreneurial Competences that you can find listed in the EntreComp framework by the European Commission.
Stage, court, and business follow the same rule: if you never try it, you’ll never make it.
With this sentence, the article starts its explanation of how young people can challenge themselves in life as they do by practicing sports.
Reading the article you can learn about some people’s experience, who explains how sports can teach a lot not only about yourself but also about how to face new professional experiences.
What can we learn from Sports that we can transfer to the job?
1. Patience and practice pay off
Sports require repeating and repeating until you don’t succeed, and after that practicing and practicing. It's a learning by doing that never stops because there are always new challenges to face and practice is essential to stay fit and on the track. This attitude makes you patient and determined. One testimonial in the article declares “The patience and practice I give to ballet and basketball I replicate at the office. In an internship, as in sports, everything’s a process”.
If you are asked to do a task for the first time, the revisions of your supervisors will be so many that it will be very difficult to identify your previous job under his/her corrections. Well, don’t give up!
Keep on doing it (practice!). You will see that the corrections will start to reduce and your confidence will grow, and when you feel discouraged, think about your sports challenges.
2. Fail but don’t freeze
Mistakes are part of the process. If you dance and forget your choreography, you can’t just stop. You need to be fast and creative, improvise and just keep dancing. The show must go on. If you miss a pass during the basketball game, it’s not the end of the world, but you better get the next rebound and keep the game going. “The show must go on”.
During your internship, you will make mistakes: forget to send an important email, miss a deadline, or misunderstand the task. Been there, done that. The important thing is: don’t freeze. It’s ok to fail, everybody does. But one thing is important, learn from them and don’t let that happen again.
3. Open your mind and don’t let insecurity stop you
How many times have you given up on embarking on a new adventure (be it a new sport or a hobby) for fear of making mistakes or not being up to the situation, despite the little voice of your conscience telling “Why don’t you try”? How many times have you worried about what others might think about you? "If you never try it, you'll never make it". Many times it is our own minds that stop us, and make us insecure even if we could find ourselves much more capable of doing something if only we try, as it was for the testimonial of the article who, despite having never played basketball, she decided to try anyway, proving to herself that she was able to and gathering support from her coach and her team.
Sports lead you to acquire an enterprising attitude and that is extremely worthy for young people in all life contexts, especially in the working one.
ENTOS project has been designed for that. Its objective is to reach a wider young audience by proposing its methodology in the school context, and more in detail as part of the physical education lessons. Sports allow you to look at life events as new challenges to face, to find the advantage of your personal resources, and to look at your weaknesses as an opportunity to do it better.
The key element of success is to be proactive and enterprising. We love ENTOS because of this. We wait for you to join our project! To read the original article directly on the GAMEPLAN Website.