Early on in my dental career I once asked a patient whether he had watched a specific televised sporting event the night before, to which the patient replied:
“I made the decision that sport was a pointless exercise and have chosen not to waste time watching it or reading about it.”
Wow. Quite a harsh decision there, Mr. Patient… but you do have a point…
Sport is a game.
And it could well be said that time spent playing games or watching other people playing games could be put to better uses.
And in absolution, this is true. That time could be better spent learning, reading, exercising, or working. It could also be better spent charitably helping others.
I like sport because….
I like playing sport and watching sport because every sport requires a level of competitive improvement by players to get better at that sport.
Being able to run faster, swim faster, jump higher, requires systematic planning, training, and practice.
Improvement is not simply something that just happens…
To be successful in life you need to have planning, training and practice, at all the important things that you must do.
To be successful in business you need to have planning, training and practice, at all the important things that you must do.
In life, as well as in business, you just cannot go along just making things up, and be hoping that things will go your way.
To be successful in life, and in business , you need to prepare for all of the possible outcomes that will be thrown at you, so that when these things appear, you have a plan of action to capitalise on those things that you want to, and deflect away those things that are not part of your plan.
Because if you are not prepared, if you have not anticipated the “ups and the downs” that you might encounter, then you will find yourself entirely at the mercy of these external forces, and the results may not be to your liking.
Preparation involves practice.
NBA basketball great Ed Macauley said this:
“When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win.”
The only way to improve at anything is to practice and get better. Yet so many people, in life, and in business, just simply HOPE that things will turn out, without ever thinking that coaching and learning followed by rehearsal and practice are paramount.
It’s the measurement…
It’s the measurement that makes things worthwhile…
Whether we are weighing ourselves, looking at our bank account balance, or just simply trying to sink a few more putts, it’s the measures that we impose on ourselves as being acceptable, or unacceptable, that really impact on the results that we achieve.
When we know and understand what we can do and what we are capable of doing, as opposed to the things we know that we cannot do, then we have a better understanding of our own capabilities for improvement, and for successful improvement.
Without calculated measurement and calculated effort, we may never attempt those things that we would successfully achieve, if only we had done the work and the research.
And also, knowing what we were and were not capable of, and understanding our own limitations, would influence us to be less blasé on those occasions where we might have attempted the impossible and failed.
There are valuable lessons to be learned by studying sport and its measurements, and taking note of those implications, and applying those relevant learnings to our lives and to our businesses.
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