MY ATHLETIC JOURNEY
Those who know me can attest to the extreme time and energy I spent training as an athlete. My athletic journey consisted of endless hours of physical training, many relationships built and then lost, and it took me from a small town in Ocean, New Jersey to Sacred Heart University, and then on to Vienna, Austria all in the spirit of chasing my dream to play football for a living. After this journey came to a close, I ended up as a Coach in West Point, NY but more importantly I have ended up right HERE, right NOW. Ironically, it is the same place that I was in Ocean Township and the same place that I was at Sacred Heart and the same place that I was in Vienna. The only difference between those places and where I am currently is that I feel more present and self-aware today. That is, I have gained an understanding of who I am, what I am doing, and why I am doing it. Answers to these questions, although hard to come by, will prepare you for the ups and downs of sport and the trials and tribulations of life.
A SHIFT IN AWARENESS
I noticed the first shift in my self-awareness after a year on injury leave from football. I had a hairline fracture in one of my vertebrae, which kept me partially bed ridden and out of the game for a year. After returning to the field, I can remember the instant that my awareness shifted. It was the first play of the second half of my first game back. To other players and the fans, it may have looked like a routine play, but from my perspective I felt an absolute SHIFT in the way I saw myself as a person and an athlete. I began to notice my breathing, my heart beating, and my elation to be back on the field. I was inspired and felt overwhelmed with luck, remembering the all to common saying, you don’t know what you have until you’ve lost it. I realized that I had lost it, but now I had gained it back.
BEING PRESENT
Every game and practice from that play on was an opportunity to express my enjoyment for all that I found great about the sport of football: the challenge, the team, the escape from stressors of everyday life. Self-awareness for me was living as present as possible, striving not to worry about the past or the future and enjoying everything I did for the inherent characteristics of the activity itself. It was focusing on the now and not just on searching for an identity or accomplishing my future goals. After my shift, I continued training and playing for many years. I had great games and poor games, great coaches and poor coaches, but I realize that I played best and found the most joy in competing when I slowed my life and training down to recognize who I was and why I did what I did. To stay present, I asked myself, “What motivates me? What are my strengths/weaknesses? What are my likes and dislikes? How can my thoughts and emotions be more productive?” I reminded myself constantly that the reasons for my hard work were not only to become a better athlete but to also learn about aspects of my SELF that I could use beyond the playing field.
PROGRESS IS A PROCESS
Gaining a deeper understanding of myself and searching for the answers to these fundamental questions is an ongoing process and certainly did not stop when I hung up my cleats. Because of this, I am thankful that my football career has given me an appreciation for the significance of such an undervalued concept as self-awareness. This is the perspective I try to embody even now, even after my days of playing football are over.
ADVICE FOR THE ATHLETE IN YOU
The concept of self-awareness is easily lost in the fast-paced world of competitive athletics. We forget to consider the important questions and find ourselves inquiring about superficial things: What if coach thinks I am not good enough? How much money can I make? What if I play bad? These are distracting questions that I believe will have much less relevance if/when you concern yourself only with what you are doing right HERE and NOW and even more importantly of who you ARE at this moment. Who you are at this moment is born out of an awareness of your everyday thoughts, actions, and emotions and can be most easily understood from tuning into the present moment. So before you step onto the field, ask yourself these fundamental questions:
- Why do I like playing (name your sport)?
- Who would I be if I wasn’t playing (sport)?
- What has my sport taught me that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise?
To learn more about self-awareness in athletics, I have found the writings of Dan Millman, Bruce Lee, and Jerry Lynch to be particularly helpful.
Stay BELIEVING, Make the SHIFT,
e: pathans@goibelieve.com
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment