Remember Your Why
Sport and Exercise can quickly become integrated into part of our routine. For me, it’s been 21 years of Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays revolving around football training and matches between the months of July to April whilst fitting any other exercise into the time I can find. However big a part sport and exercise plays in your life, I’m sure you can all recognise your daily or weekly habits it has formed. I used to spend the short break of May and June craving the football season to start again, filling the time with runs and the gym. This was until a few seasons ago when I realised I was just getting through the season and waiting for the break to happen. And a long break was what I was soon to get. An ACL rupture would soon give me 11 months to remember why I’ve committed so much time to the part of my life I love.
Any athlete, at any level, will go through the ups and downs sport can bring. Whether its the elation of a cup win, that PB run time or simply finding the time to train after a long day. Sport and exercise can bring that release of endorphins that we all crave. However, when sport and exercise throws up its challenges it can be easy to quickly forget the enjoyment it brings us. Whether it be an injury, being dropped, a disagreement with a coach or teammate, a loss or simply not hitting a target you’ve worked hard to achieve, there are many ways participation in sport can bring us frustration.
When these down times happen its easy to forget why we give so much of ourselves to sport. Its easy to forget the reason why we started. But its this exact reason we should always have at the forefront of our minds. What was it that made you start in the first place? Many an athlete at the top of their game will have committed hours, days, weeks and many a year to their trade. Celebrating along the way through wins, selections, promotions whilst navigation their way through disappointment, being released or injuries. Yet they still continue to strive for progression, for excellence and opportunity. Their why, your why is all set in your roots.
For me, my why began back in Primary School when sport gave me a safe space to express myself. Always the ‘quiet one’, I never liked to stand out in a crowd or in the classroom. I always liked school and achieved well academically but sport was always what I looked forward to the most. A place where I came out of my shell, where I didn’t feel self conscious, where I wasn’t ‘the quiet one'. Fast forward 21 years and it still provides me that same environment whilst also now having allowed me to experience some of my most invaluable lessons and adventures along the way. So after all the up and downs, the wins and losses, my why is still the same as it was when I started. Where do I feel the most comfortable, the most me? On a football pitch, playing sport, the same as it’s always been.
What is your why? Why did you start? Through the elevation of success of the hardship or setbacks never forget your why. Do it for them. Do it for you.