Seven healthy habits for sports persons are being highlighted in this article. These are especially to be followed in the ongoing time of the Covid-19 Crisis. Following them would ensure highest productivity from the days, weeks and months to come, before all goes back to normal. That doesn’t mean that they can be avoided after things get back to normal. However, sports persons capable of following them during these not usual days would see some incredible results!
1. Discipline
To be successful the word ‘Discipline’ must be carved into stone for a sportspersons. ‘Discipline’ has got several meanings, but here I am using the word ‘Discipline’ in a particular sense. That is, developing the habit of preceding all our actions by appropriate planning and preparation.
All the thoughtless actions will lead to adverse consequences, which will affect the sports performance. So detailed planning and preparation, towards your food habits, exercise schedule, resting schedule, socializing and other schedules need to be carefully understood and executed.
Hence a life of discipline is the starting point.
2. Hard Work
Any amount of planning and preparation will never lead to success. Any amount of planning and preparation are not enough.
Planning and preparation are extremely important, but they are always incomplete. They should be supplemented with hard work. This means I have to implement whatever plan and preparation I have made, preferably in a written form of a time-table. Time-table is extremely important. Whatever time-table I have chalked out, I have to implement. So hard work means completing the job and completing the job perfectly.
Implementation means hard work.
3. Aesthetic Excellence
You not only do a job, but whatever the job you do or whatever thing we handle, we should have value for aesthetic excellence.
Aesthetic excellence means, every place and thing that we handle should be extremely neat and clean. Every place that we make use of, whether it is my home or workout space must be spic and span. Not only the living room, but every room in the home, must be spic and span. So, neatness is one component of aesthetic excellence.
Neatness of every object and every place we use, including our own body and dress. Lots of sports persons are not smartly or neatly turned out for practice sessions. This compromises the quality of practice. This aspect is sometimes difficult to digest by sports persons, but the impact of not being neat and clean cannot be overly emphasized.
The second component of aesthetic excellence is orderliness with regard to everything we handle in our home or where ever we practice.
What do you mean by orderliness?
Everything we handle should have its own specific position, which we deliberately allocate. If we want to keep the dumb bell, gym rope, gripper etc., we should allocate a place for them. We should allocate a specific place for everything small and big that we are handling. Not only everything should have a place, but everything should be only in that place when it is not in use. So, when you need to workout, you aren’t wasting your time looking for the equipment in the garage or outside on the lawn or anywhere else. You always access it in less than a minute. That is because you follow orderliness!
So we have to ensure being neat, clean and orderly.
4. Integrity
Integrity, or uprightness or alignment or harmonization of the personality is extremely important. If you go to a music concert, there are so many instruments, musician and singers. You will find that they are spending a lot of time adjusting the instruments and themselves. Aligning the throat, aligning the instruments is required. In fact the time taken before the concert to fine tune them, is always longer than the duration of the concert.
If a music concert requires alignment, then sports perfection require as much alignment if not more.
The area where the sport person requires the maximum integrity is the integrity between him or her ‘the thinker’ and him or her the speaker. There must be in harmony, every time. “What you say is what you mean, and what you mean is what you say.”
If I am telling a lie, I am creating a rift, I am creating a friction, I am creating a division in my personality. And division is disintegration; when they are in harmony, it is called integrity, when they are not in harmony, it is called disintegration; and in English language itself, disintegration means destruction. So the success of the sports persons is actually dependent upon his integrity.
So Integrity is the fourth healthy habit.
5. Obedience
Obedience is a very important characteristic required to be a successful sports person. The first obedience is the obedience with regard to the instructions given by the coaches who are supposed to be the role models of sports person.
The second obedience is obedience of all rules and regulations, which are important, such as avoiding performance enhancing substances etc. We have seen the rise and eventual fall and disgrace of sportspersons. Those who aren’t obedient and avoid following rules, eventually do fall. They fall big time.
So obedience is the fifth healthy habit to follow.
6. Consideration for others
Always remember that we are never alone in the family or in the society or on the sports field. Therefore, before doing anything, keep in mind whether others will be affected or not. Keep in the mind the existence of other people.
Always expand your mind to accommodate your neighbors, family and co- sportspersons. You don’t have to sacrifice your own well-being, but you can take care of the others also while taking care of yourself. When you park the car, see whether you are doing it properly. When you go for practice see that you allow others to also practice with equal amount of respect, that you would expect from them. These very small but important courtesies go a long way in grooming champions.
The sixth habit is Consideration for others.
7. Sincerity
Sincerity with regard to the implementation of the previous six habits, because it is not that easy to follow them. Actions speak louder than word, as the saying goes. So the sincerity with which a sports person can cultivate and follow these healthy habits would determine his or her ultimate success! For more on sports success, https://thesportsmindtraining.com/sports-success/
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