RealTalkAJ

The battle is mostly in your mind and not the mat

Continually moving and maneuvers are the keys to success

Scoring from the bottom position is mandatory priority

Get up when life knocks you down and score big

Set yourself up for success constantly

Everything can be either won or lost in the blink of an eye

Wrestling is an individual sport like life

Your teammates are important to everything

Injuries and lessons are learned that stay with you for life

11 Life Lessons I learned in Wrestling

• Responsibility
• Accountability
• Learning through losses
• Being Cooperative
• Focus
• Going the Extra Mile
• Leadership and Initiative
• Savings
• Having a definite chief aim
• Being open to receiving and giving feedback
• The value of keeping score

Responsibility

Wrestling forces all participants to be dependable in what they agree to do.

If you say you’re gonna make the weight then your team can depend on you making it happen.

It’s helped me with identifying and ultimately going with what’s a good choice for me.

Everybody’s program is different in the expectations.

Fortunately mine only required that we become better people in whatever we do.

That helped take some pressure off making everything dependent on the success in the sport to determine our value.

What being involved with wrestling did was teach accountability that I think I wouldn’t have gotten out of any other sport as in depth as what I did thanks to being a wrestler.

If you’re wondering what you just learned it’s what makes up responsibility.

Why is accountability important?

Accountability builds trust.

When we apply it to wrestling it becomes important because you get put in positions where you have to trust your training mainly.

Next is the consistency in performance you earn that you’ll notice builds up as your season continues.

What this does is eventually make you more motivated.

Your motivation comes from the progress you notice yourself having by being disciplined enough to show accountability through all positions.

The better wrestlers take accountability for things that even seem to be out of their control.

To make it plain and simple they create business out of things that could easily be placed on to somebody else.

Accountability is a trait that eventually becomes contagious because the wrestler that profits from it becomes a product of the product so to speak.

What this does is become attractive to everybody else that witnesses the benefits and gets them to start doing the same.

Lastly is the productiveness that comes about with being accountable.

When you become more accountable you feel as though you have more control of your life.

You understand where something went right and wrong.

What that does is create a surge of energy to fix and improve whatever areas you want to be better in.

Learning from losses

Learning from your losses is one of the most valuable skills you could learn.

The main lesson you ideally get out of this is that facing really becomes the beginning of your knowledge.

There comes a point where settling your emotions and letting your perceived answers take a backseat to what you can learn.

That becomes having to fight ego, pride and other attitudes that could hold you back in the sport.

Learning from loss forces you to make the necessary adjustments to become a better wrestler for the next time you step on the mat.

These improvements come about when you start asking yourself the tough questions.

What could I have done differently, where are they better than us at, how am I gonna respond if I get put in that situation again are a few that might get asked.

You’ll find out where you can get better if you decide to face your weaknesses.

Why is being cooperative important?

Being cooperative is a benefit that’s highly underrated in the sport if you ask me.

It’s shown to be linked with greater learning.

When you can show cooperation for your team, officials and governing body that sanctions the sport you’ll learn more without a doubt!

It’s a willingness to be a model athlete in this case when applied to wrestling.

That’s a benefit in itself that can go in plenty of different directions.

Being cooperative also shows emotional maturity.

It takes a better person to be able to adapt with people you have to work with.

There’s some things that change as you stay around for the long haul with whatever you do that requires cooperation.

There ends up being new administration, teammates, coaching staff and others.

With that comes new personalities you might have to work with in order to get to the next step.

Having the reputation of being cooperative creates a personal identity.

In my opinion it’s one that communicates I can work with anybody on any given day through any type of circumstance.

A final benefit I like to think cooperation provides is the ability to be social.

It allows you to network and meet new people.

Because you’re able to work with anybody it makes you a valuable asset to any team.

Being focused

Being focused is something we’re told to do constantly but have you ever applied it your sport?

I was able to with wrestling.

There was numerous ways I was able to show it and receive a benefit from applying it to my craft.

First was being able to organize the mass quantity of information I was given.

I learned a lot in the sport.

A plethora of moves, mindset tips, workouts and anything else you could think of to build an athlete.

My focus however was what allowed me to dissect the info and apply the things I felt directly applied to me in my matches.

Ultimately it eliminated distractions from my personal training.

For anybody that did what it took to be competitive at a high level they’ll understand that it takes more than just doing the regular practices to reach above average results.

That’s where personal practices come into play and you’ll cater workouts to suit areas you specifically need to improve in.

It made going to team practices even better when I had an idea with what I wanted to improve in.

You can imagine how good of news this was for my coaches.

I can say that from memory with praise I would get on awards nights and things similar.

You could say that was my reward and confirmation in being sure I’m doing the right thing.

I’m able to live in the moment when I’m more focused.

A good analogy for it would be the same way AI works.

It makes adjustments as the situation continues.

The power of focus is something similar to a runner’s high, nothing else matters except the thing you’re focusing on.

Going the extra mile

Going the extra mile is a phrase, still a lesson nonetheless.

It’s doing more than what you have to do.

Wrestling taught me this because I wanted to get better in the sport, without anyone telling me I should.

Often it’s actually tied in with customer service.

I think it might have something to do with the type of jobs I chose to work both while training and after my collegiate career.

This can be valuable for anybody whether you do a sport or not but let’s draw a parallel.

When you’re serving others for work whether it’s a customer or even an employer they only care about leaving satisfied after meeting up with you.

If you’re involved with anything that demands thinking outside the box it’ll also require you to practice this principle.

I actually wanna mention a career I think ties in even better that came in mind as I’m writing this and it’s being a salesman.

It’s very common to find someone who sells things having to work around the limitations of their prospect if there are any.

When you go the extra mile it communicates that you’re willing to put in special effort in order to get what you want.

If we bring this to my habits when I decide to do my line of work I’ll add that this is why I don’t trade time for reward.

What this means is that when I do things I tend to think of the benefit rather than the time I spent on it.

It could easily be compared to someone who lives with the philosophy “whatever it takes” same as Captain America in Endgame.

It’s just a better model and reminds me that what I’m doing is what I really wanna do.

Leadership and Initiative

Wrestling got the leadership and initiative trait rolling in my engine.

I was always taught that it’s shown intrinsically, so internally.

It’s doing what needs to be done without someone forcing you to do so.

This trait is actually very common with innovators and great out the box thinkers.

I will add though that even though wrestling got things started with instilling this quality in my personality it was only to a certain point.

I’d say that any program you’re part of starts you off with having a certain attitude and mindset when it comes to being a good fit for their team.

And as you should guess being a leader is usually one of the requirements.

That’s the funny thing about it.

It’s something you’re told to do but it’s never really taught specifically.

Most of the time you have to figure out what being a leader is yourself.

There’s great mindset training courses that’ll prepare you for being that type of person.

I had a wrestling specific program that coach would incorporate into the practices that could’ve helped subconsciously but I honestly feel I was naturally inclined to be a leader that takes initiative.

That’s not to say I can’t improve or you either if you feel the same way.

It’s more of a find what works best for you then run with it type of deal.

Save it for later

This has to be taken as more of a metaphor rather than literal although it can if need be.

When I say I learned to be a better saver it’s more of a digging deep scenario, when you have to tap into reserves.

I’ll paint a picture for you.

You’re down by 1 and need to score to send the match into overtime or you have a lead and need to finish the match strong in order to advance.

It’s actually a repetitive lesson that seems most common in the U.S. and I believe it makes things easier to understand.

Why we’re always in the running for a championship with sports internationally, being one of the best countries from a financial literacy standpoint and anything else that might have to challenge the mind to get great results.

I give it praise at the moment but I’d be doing you a disservice by not acknowledging it being a double edge sword.

Having a little more in the tank so to speak can be useful but also bite you in the butt if you don’t dig deep for that second wind when it counts.

It makes losses much more painful when you have a feeling that you could’ve gave a little more.

Without getting too skewed in my parallel with sports and money I’ll leave it at that.

Saving is a good thing but you have to know what you’re saving for and actually pull the trigger when it counts.

That’s all.