But as the drudgery of school, relationships and family commitments move along in their tertiary life, they fall out of the sport in pursuit of things that matter more.
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Don't worry. I must say I'm guilty of this as anyone else. I have started projects which I hold get involved in so enthusiastically for a period of time and then move on before I complete it and try something else. I got so sick of managing people when I was a vice- captain for my varsity team I almost quit the sport altogether. I have never won a major race in my entire paddling career less my last year in my varsity team. But what kept me going?
We all talk of the thing of the town that you should do what you are passionate about because you will be motivated by it. But what really is the difference between someone who is really successful in a sport for example, Cristiano Ronaldo in the footballing world or Derrick Rose in the NBA to someone else who is not?
Truly as I reflect back on my years in the sports I have been in ( I have been a soccer goalkeeper in my earlier years as a teenager until I picked up dragon boat when I was 17, i'm 27 now) , I realised there is this one thing that I encountered which paved the way to further success in my "career" as a dragon boater and currently a coach.
As mentioned by James Clear in his blog JamesClear.com
“At some point,” he said, “it comes down to who can handle the boredom of training every day and doing the same lifts over and over and over again.”
It is really a question of who is willing to persevere to execute the most boring of rituals, exercises or routines that it requires to make them successful.
In our sport, it is simply going back to the basics, day in, day out. Understanding our body and how it responds to training. The mentality we take when our conscious mind believes that it has already given all it can and when the body needs to stop or rest.
The time when you are in the gym and you know you have to do the same lifts again and again and again. The drudgery of heading back to the training ground when you could have spent a whole morning sleeping in.
I've personally been bored and lost motivation countless times in this sport because as a top level varsity athlete, it does eat away at your time for doing so many more things in life as a student. The exchange trips to far foreign lands, the gap year that you could have taken to pursue your dream internship, the possibilities of starting my own business in University.
Yet, I believe the only way I stuck it out was really because I managed to see things from a bigger perspective and understood the compound effect that my investment in this sport had a bigger role to play in this community. To find a way to constantly perform, to work through the boredom of training, coming down week in week out for trainings. The daily grind I know I needed to invest in to achieve my goals.
I knew I was not the best paddler in the country but I knew I could contribute more. As much as I could to achieve the ultimate goal in my life, that is to win the Prime Minister's Challenge Trophy, which I did in my final year. After years of trials and tribulations in my previous years of paddling. It was a momentous occasion that proved pushing through all that was worth it. I know from that moment forward I wanted to give my best to the community through coaching and providing the opportunity for people to pick up the sport that I most endeared.
To just sum up,
To really get what you want, you have to face it head on and fall in love with the rigour that it takes to succeed. Fall in love with the process of improving day by day, open your mind to the insecurities of failing and let the results take care of themselves.
It is really a question of who is willing to persevere to execute the most boring of rituals, exercises or routines that it requires to make them successful.
In our sport, it is simply going back to the basics, day in, day out. Understanding our body and how it responds to training. The mentality we take when our conscious mind believes that it has already given all it can and when the body needs to stop or rest.
The time when you are in the gym and you know you have to do the same lifts again and again and again. The drudgery of heading back to the training ground when you could have spent a whole morning sleeping in.
I've personally been bored and lost motivation countless times in this sport because as a top level varsity athlete, it does eat away at your time for doing so many more things in life as a student. The exchange trips to far foreign lands, the gap year that you could have taken to pursue your dream internship, the possibilities of starting my own business in University.
Yet, I believe the only way I stuck it out was really because I managed to see things from a bigger perspective and understood the compound effect that my investment in this sport had a bigger role to play in this community. To find a way to constantly perform, to work through the boredom of training, coming down week in week out for trainings. The daily grind I know I needed to invest in to achieve my goals.
I knew I was not the best paddler in the country but I knew I could contribute more. As much as I could to achieve the ultimate goal in my life, that is to win the Prime Minister's Challenge Trophy, which I did in my final year. After years of trials and tribulations in my previous years of paddling. It was a momentous occasion that proved pushing through all that was worth it. I know from that moment forward I wanted to give my best to the community through coaching and providing the opportunity for people to pick up the sport that I most endeared.
To just sum up,
To really get what you want, you have to face it head on and fall in love with the rigour that it takes to succeed. Fall in love with the process of improving day by day, open your mind to the insecurities of failing and let the results take care of themselves.
