Here are some of the life-work lessons ……..
Value your constraints: Even if you don’t have a ball, goal posts, or a field, you still can find a way to play the game, e.g., a tin can or a wrapped-up sock can be a ball, and the legs of a table make a fine goal. Use what you have, can find, or imagine in life and work. Sometimes the more you are given, the less you try, and the less you try, the weaker you become. Obstacles can be your best friends.
Don’t let a little thing like humiliation get in your way: Even if you scored 11-0 in your school while playing soccer,and you wanted to be swallowed up by the mud pools on the field, you should introspect what your strength was during the game and work on it. If your strength was speed, better utilized as a goal scorer than goal stopper. Work on your strengths rather than just try to fix your weaknesses.
Better teams beat better players: Individuals can have moments of brilliance to win a game, but the team that acts as if it is one player wins over time. Mutual respect and understanding, trust, anticipation of each other’s needs and wants, and the joy of playing together keeps a team winning. Work for the team, and the team will work for you.
Keep your head when things get rough: Let’s be real, if you’re good some opponents will want to hurt you, i.e., take you out of the game. The competition can be fierce, and dirty tricks might be used to gain an advantage. Don’t retaliate—that most likely will result in you hurting your team by being sent off the field for the remainder of the game. Play hard, but with your brain fully engaged and your emotions in check.
Make each moment count for something: There are many times during a game when you don’t have the ball, but those moments are vitally important. What you do without the ball is as important as what you do with it. What open space are you creating for yourself and others on your team? Are you creating opportunities for your teammates to score by drawing opposition players away from those they are meant to be defending against? Behind every movement you make should be an idea, a thought.
Be predictably unpredictable: You must constantly adapt to what is happening on the field, e.g., a change of tactics by the opposition, players shifting positions, a change in the weather, injuries and substitutions. Rigidity and predictability make you very easy to “read” and play against. At the same time, your team members need to know what to expect from you. They need to be able to anticipate your movements.
The game finishes when it finishes: In one game, you scored a goal within 7 seconds of the kickoff. It was great to feel like a record-breaker for a moment, but success is a fickle friend. A game lasts for 90 minutes (more if minutes are added on to account for time lost through injuries). After your quick strike, your team became somewhat complacent and allowed the opposition to take control of the game. Stay sharp, pay attention, and keep up the momentum.
Remember your goal is scoring goals: You must have watched some teams and it’s as though they forget the objective of the game is to score more goals than their opponents. They maintain possession of the ball for long periods, but ultimately possession is a meaningless statistic. The only meaningful statistic is goals scored. Measure what counts and forget the rest; keep it simple.
Don’t expect the path to success will be predictable: Yes, your goal is at one end of the field, and your opponents at the other, but that is it as far as linearity goes. Players must zig and zag and even go backward for the team to go forward. Prepared strategies and tactics are useful, but so, too, is the spontaneity that can radically change the direction of the game.
Take a risk, be bold, and, most importantly, enjoy!
Ref: Trainingmag.com
