It may surprise you that I didn't play rugby growing up. I think that most of my friends at the time played soccer or hockey and to be honest I didn't really have anything in common with the rugby players so I gravitated to those sports.
Despite that, I did watch a lot of rugby both on television and at the ground live. I can think back to when I first started watching rugby and my hometown team were the best in the country. I can probably remember the names of players from that team more than I can remember the player's names from 2016.
After watching 35 years of rugby what lessons can we learn from the sport? What can we get from rugby and apply it in our own lives?
1. You will get knocked about and even knocked out but the secret is to get back up and get going again. Life will knock you around but you can't let it get the better of you. You have to be strong. Stand back, look at life in the eye and say you will not beat me.
2. You have to keep going forward. You will get pushed back but the secret is to keep going. Try to go forward. Try to go over that advantage line to get momentum to head to the end goal.
3. Conflict is a part of life and I know that I spend a lot of my time running away from conflict but in rugby you have to do it, there is no two ways about it. You have go up against a bigger player, a more skilled player. In life you are going to meet people who are more experienced than you and generally better in your profession. When you meet them you have to meet them head on and not move back an inch.
4. Rugby teaches you self-discipline. In fact any sport teaches you self-discipline. You need to know when to train. When not to train. Sometimes listening to your body telling you not to train is just as important as training. If you want to succeed in sport you need to know what to eat. You need to know what to eat even though you don't want to eat it. You want to eat something else maybe sweet and delicious.
5. Confidence is important. When we watch rugby we can see the special skills that they have. These are not innate, the players have trained for years and years to get themselves to where they want to be in the game. Just like you, you need to train yourself consistently over and over again. I know that the more I write this blog, the more confident I will get and I will feel a lot better about myself and the blog. If I slack off however, then I will have to go back to square one which is never good.
6. No matter how introverted and shy you are, you are going to have to be part of a team at some stage in your life, whether it be in sport, in business or in education you are going yo have to show that you are part of a team at some stage. Sport and rugby in particular shows that you might not get on personally with everyone in the team but at least you are all going for the same goal and as long as you give 100% then you will be respected as part of the team whether you fit in socially or not.
7. If you want to be successful in rugby you have to know your priorities. You have to know when to have a good time and when to stay in and concentrate on the game the following day. This is the same when you are trying to create something. It might be tempting to go out with your mates but what if you have a blog post to write or a webpage to update. What should your decision be? You need to know your priorities.
There you have it, 7 ways in which rugby can teach you about life. Now go out make that forward progress that will get you to where you want to be. If you are scared give it a try, you wont know until you give it a go.
1. You will get knocked about and even knocked out but the secret is to get back up and get going again. Life will knock you around but you can't let it get the better of you. You have to be strong. Stand back, look at life in the eye and say you will not beat me.
2. You have to keep going forward. You will get pushed back but the secret is to keep going. Try to go forward. Try to go over that advantage line to get momentum to head to the end goal.
3. Conflict is a part of life and I know that I spend a lot of my time running away from conflict but in rugby you have to do it, there is no two ways about it. You have go up against a bigger player, a more skilled player. In life you are going to meet people who are more experienced than you and generally better in your profession. When you meet them you have to meet them head on and not move back an inch.
4. Rugby teaches you self-discipline. In fact any sport teaches you self-discipline. You need to know when to train. When not to train. Sometimes listening to your body telling you not to train is just as important as training. If you want to succeed in sport you need to know what to eat. You need to know what to eat even though you don't want to eat it. You want to eat something else maybe sweet and delicious.
5. Confidence is important. When we watch rugby we can see the special skills that they have. These are not innate, the players have trained for years and years to get themselves to where they want to be in the game. Just like you, you need to train yourself consistently over and over again. I know that the more I write this blog, the more confident I will get and I will feel a lot better about myself and the blog. If I slack off however, then I will have to go back to square one which is never good.
6. No matter how introverted and shy you are, you are going to have to be part of a team at some stage in your life, whether it be in sport, in business or in education you are going yo have to show that you are part of a team at some stage. Sport and rugby in particular shows that you might not get on personally with everyone in the team but at least you are all going for the same goal and as long as you give 100% then you will be respected as part of the team whether you fit in socially or not.
7. If you want to be successful in rugby you have to know your priorities. You have to know when to have a good time and when to stay in and concentrate on the game the following day. This is the same when you are trying to create something. It might be tempting to go out with your mates but what if you have a blog post to write or a webpage to update. What should your decision be? You need to know your priorities.
There you have it, 7 ways in which rugby can teach you about life. Now go out make that forward progress that will get you to where you want to be. If you are scared give it a try, you wont know until you give it a go.
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