HOW TO BE A PROFESSIONAL SPORTSMAN
Every day I have the fortune to live with young athletes who are very talented and are one step away from being professionals. Soccer players, tennis players, golfers, swimmers, basketball players, etc.
All of them have something that we could say is innate: their talent . This talent together with the work they have accumulated, makes them very good in their sports practice. But to talent and work, we must add two other components that may seem simple, but which are in most cases what makes the balance tip towards success (being a professional athlete), or to another place (being about to be professional and stay at the gates).
These two factors are:
- The motivation: it is the direction and intensity of effort. It is the gasoline that makes the athlete get up every morning to train and compete giving 100%. It is evident that with motivation alone you cannot go very far, but if you have talent, more work and you combine it with motivation, the athlete has a much better chance of succeeding.
- The emotional intelligence: understood as the ability of people to know how to manage their emotions. It is the proper use of our emotions, to direct our behaviors, to desired goals.
On many occasions, athletes have talent, work and even motivation. But even with all of the above it is not enough to be professionals. Sometimes these athletes lose their balance for various reasons: change of city or country, new coach or team, living independently without the support of the family, having a partner who does not fit the life of an elite athlete, being more focused on buying a car or other objects.
Here it is essential that the athlete is clear about his priorities and that the environment helps him make good decisions that contribute to finding emotional stability.
The changes produced by the search for stability are the result of an adaptation that is achieved as situations and problems arise that have to be solved and that ensures the permanence of inner balance. Many times these changes are caused by winds that one does not control, that is, by external circumstances that one does not decide, at least directly, that they occur. The ability to adapt to these unelected changes is a quality that emotionally intelligent people try to enhance day by day.
When an athlete has: TALENT + WORK + MOTIVATION + EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (BALANCE) the odds of being a professional athlete are multiplied.
