Playing Sports and Lessons for My Life

Playing Sports and Lessons for My Life

In this life, there are many things which give me the valuable lessons to grow up and cope with the difficulties and the challenges. Indeed, one of the things which I have never thought that it will be useful for me: Playing sports. I know that playing sports is a favorite activity for many people around the world. It not only provides us with enjoyment and also freshens up our mind, but it also helps us to develop some skills such as how to work as a team, how to deal with failure, how to make sacrifices… 

Before I entered the Passionist Congregation, I had never played sports and I did not care about it, too. However, when I was a candidate of the congregation, my formator forced me to play sports and he was willing to teach me playing some sports. From helping of the formator, I was really interested in playing some sports. So, when I had free time in the afternoon, I was very eager to play sports with my brothers in community. Indeed,  I really loved playing basketball, because basketball is a team sport that requires not only understanding about passing ball, shooting ball to the hoop, defending the hoop, but also some skills about playing as a team, communicating, and having a stamina. Moreover, I really love playing sports for 3 main reasons.

First, this is a good way to rest, to relax after studying and working. Playing sports helps me to cuts down on pressure and stress. It is also a natural way to loosen up and let go of stress or sorrow in my life. For example, when I play basketball, I try to shoot the ball to the hoop, it is time to throw out and forget my sadness in my heart to live with the present. Moreover, I recognize that the negative thoughts about the burden of life will be no longer existent due to the high concentrating mind when I am among an exciting match.

Secondly, playing sports cannot be played alone or individually, so I have a good chance to practice to play and work together. It helps me to know how to work smoothly with others and understand my brothers in community more.  It also helps me to be aware that the success of the individual is not as important as success of the team. This teaches me humility and selflessness to work well with others in order to achieve a common goal. 

Lastly, to be successful, I have to know to catch the opportunity like shooting exactly to the hoop, the goal. However, I also missed many chances like failures in my life, but I didn’t give up, I still tried to fight and face them, so it challenged me to have a deeper concentration for my goal.  Moreover, it also helps me to recognize that losing is almost as important as winning, because everyone will fail at something in life. Therefore, the important thing is to learn about the failure and to use it to our advantage. Losing a game helped to me to know that these were temporary losses that could be overcome next time.