3 Profoundly Lucrative Reasons Why You Should Quickly Recognize the Importance of Sports and Games (even if you are just a student)

Every student is an athlete.

Now if you don’t directly play sports, you might be saying “What? How can that be?”

Do you want to know why you are an athlete?

Let me explain.

Every time you are in class, do you always have to find ways to get the right answers on tests?

Kind of like you are being triple teamed on the basketball court and you have 3 guys taller than you defending you?

If you still don’t understand what I’m saying, have you ever dealt with a math question involving a lot of additional steps in the question that the teacher or professor threw in there just because they wanted to trap you and get you to lose points on the test (like turning the ball over in the game)?

If so, then you might understand why academics (and any area in life) is a sport.

Every time you have to learn material and take tests, you need to go through a series of obstacles the coursework or professor throws at you.

And to do this, you need to know the right system for taking tests so you have certainty as to what to do and you must become a conceptual thinker so you can think on the fly when these professors throw these curveballs on tests.

In sports, it’s the exact same thing. That’s why Russell Wilson can go into every game as the de facto offensive coordinator on the field because he knows the playbook inside and out and even when his real offensive coordinator can’t call the plays (this actually happened), he can still create something out of nothing.

That’s when you know you know your stuff and you become unstoppable.

This is how knowing the importance of sports and game in school and in the business world can truly transform what you are doing now and take you to the next level.

As you can see, sports and academics have so many things in common, but there are a few things that they really share in common that lay the foundation for success in your life and winning championships.

If you incorporate the principles I will be discussing in this post and actually apply them to any aspect in your life, I can definitely guarantee your success in the future, whether it’s academic or in business.

So let’s get right into these principles right now!

You’ll Become More Disciplined

Have you ever seen those great teams that just seem to be heads and shoulders above everyone else?

Or maybe you’ve seen a student who just outperforms everyone on exams and you wonder “How is he doing it?”

Well, the reason this is happening is in large part because they are disciplined.

You see, when you have discipline combined with the right strategy for winning, you have certainty as to what will happen during the games and during the test.

Why? Because discipline equals successful consistency and successful consistency equals successful results.

With sports, you become accustomed to this because a large part of winning is knowing what to do what and in what situation.

In practice, you go over every possible situation multiple times and when you see it in a game or on a test, you are like “Oh, I’ve done this before. All I have to do is this and I’ll make the right move.”

And as a result, you keep winning and winning and it makes you feel good and superior.

And because you feel good and superior, you want to keep doing it again and again with no stop.

Losing is a terrible feeling and you always feel like you want to get rid of this feeling immediately.

This is why sports give you this benefit because you can’t lose or you’ll lose your spot on the team, you’ll miss out on benefits from taking part (or leading) a winning team to victory and your quality of life will drop as a result.

All of these things must be avoided at all costs.

Even if you don’t play sports, adopting a sports mentality to everything you are doing will drive you forward to be the best.

You’ll know how to develop a system that can succeed in any situation and you will persevere because you have certainty in the system working.

I’ll give you an example of this to show you what I mean:

You have a schedule you need to keep and you must follow through on the schedule that’s proven to get you in the best shape possible to win.

Provided you have vetted the schedule to see if it works, what do you think will happen if you stick with it in the long run?

You’re going to win, hands down no questions about it.

See this article here for a testimonial regarding this.

Another example would be in your studies. Part of building a championship contender is executing time tested strategies that are proven to deliver results in extraordinary fashion.

In fact, using the study system I developed, which I describe right here if you are interested, I used researched back study techniques that allowed me to score the highest on test scores in my classes when I discovered them. Everybody asked me how I was getting these high scores when everyone was floundering?

Well, with the right strategy back by research, you go “Aha! That’s what he was doing!” The same way athletes train to get in the best shape consistently is the same way you can rock your classes.

It’s really as simple as this (with sub steps of course):

1. Know your goal
2. Be Committed to Achieving What You Want
3. Develop the Correct Strategy
4. Execute the Strategy Consistently

Whether you are acing your classes, building a successful business or creating a championship winning organization, this is the process that applies to all arenas.

And if you play sports (or treat academics and life as a sport), not only will you have more fun since you see yourself as a player, coach or general manager trying to win the game, but you’ll be forced to do it in a way that’ll become intuitive to you since you did it multiple times and can do it anywhere.

In fact, this is the reason why many companies want to hire athletes to work for them because they’ve developed these habits to the point where it’s second nature to them and they can execute these strategies anywhere they go.

It’s a winning formula that never fails. Have a look at some case studies here, here and here if you wish.

And with all of this in your back pocket, you will know this next point really well when you dive deep into it:

You’ll Learn Management

Believe me when I say this:

At least 90% of the problems in every single organization is due to one thing:

Management.

In sports, it’s couldn’t be any more true.

Have you ever seen a team fail not because of the players, but because of the coaching staff and the general manager?

I couldn’t give you a more classic example of this than the Miami Dolphins.

Read on to know the story; it’s hilariously eye opening when you get into it.

So this 20 year period of mediocrity all started when Dan Marino retired in 2000. Ever since then, the Miami Dolphins have made some of the most questionable and silliest moves the NFL has ever seen.

They passed on a top 5 NFL quarterback in 2006 (if you are a Dolphins fan, you know who I’m talking about), they hired arguably one of the worst general managers in NFL history and they passed on golden opportunities left and right to draft almost every one of the best quarterback in the NFL today.

On top of all of that, they have failed to establish a culture that promotes winning and instead, they hired incompetent coaches who just criticized players for no reason and/or they did not have the football acumen to successfully utilize players to their fullest potential.

A lot of the players who used to play for the Dolphins are now thriving with other NFL teams and have won Super Bowls because the other teams did this one thing correctly that the Dolphins have not done for 20 years:

Effectively manage.

And the Dolphins’ lack of success is strictly attributed to this.

Wrong strategies, no discipline, no execution and a bunch of angry players for a really good reason.

All of the missing ingredients for having a championship organization.

Now let’s look at the other side of the coin not far from them: the Miami Heat.

In case you don’t know, they are a basketball team in the NBA.

At one point in their history, they had LeBron James on the team.

This was during the era of the Big 3, when LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all decided to join together to form a team that would disrupt and ultimately transform the way NBA teams play basketball.

Ever since 1995, the Heat have always been known as a championship organization. Why? Because they have done the complete opposite of what the Dolphins have done.

They have real and tangible goals, they have the commitment to win, they always use the right strategies to get the most out of their players and to put them in the best position to win and most importantly, they execute their strategies day in and day out.

Anytime you compare the Miami Heat and the Miami Dolphins in Miami, it’s like you are comparing a Fortune 500 company with $1 trillion dollars in revenue to an ice cream shack in Alaska where no one wants ice cream. The difference is that profound.

And this is exactly where you can be if you effectively manage.

Academically and in the business world, it’s all about management and knowing what processes work, much like running a sports franchise.

If you use the wrong systems and you employ the wrong management tactics like the Dolphins did, you are bound to lose. You can’t win and you are doomed to become extremely frustrated.

However, if you become more like the Heat and do everything the correct way and the systematic way, you will win.

It’s that simple.

When you compete in sports, you are forced to do this. Because if you don’t, you are like most players, coaches and general managers that get pink slips at the end of the season.

This should not be you at all.

And because you can’t be the guy going out the door, you will learn this:

You’ll Learn How to Win

This one might be very obvious, but not so much at the same time.

In everything you do in life, you are competing and in essence, you are playing sports.

When you are in the classroom, you are always striving to earn the best grade that you can and to do so in excellent fashion (preferably in dominating fashion).

Of course, you should be learning the material to use in your chosen profession, but the feeling you get when you get the highest grade in the class; you can’t beat that my friend. It really feels good that you accomplished something.

In business, you always have to do everything in your power to close the deal and to outwit every other competitor in order to secure that deal.

It requires a great amount of studying, persistence and, in a way, breaking tackles when you are trying to get to the end zone.

These are the same characteristics you need to be successful in any traditional sport.

Likewise, if you are a parent, you are always trying to do the best job possible to get your children to cooperate with you and in a way, you are like a quarterback who needs to throw the ball, but you have so many defenders trying to get to you (bosses, your spouse, your dog etc.) who want your attention more so you make quick decisions to avoid a turnover (aka: a nasty argument with dire consequences).

In sports, you need to do the same thing.

So what’s the takeaway from this article?

There is no getting around sports regardless of what you do.

You must know them and embrace them and become immersed by them in whatever means necessary.

If you must become immersed in them to fully understand what I mean, do so. Because when you see the direct connection between sports and real life, you will approach everything completely different than you did before.

And you’ll thank yourself dearly for that revelation, regardless of who you are.

If you got a lot out of this post and you want more punch to the gut in your face content that delivers results consistently over time and will make you a superstar in life, make sure you subscribe to Join the Island, the world’s greatest blog, with your email address in the action box below!

Until next time,

This is Evan signing off.

PS: Comment below with your thoughts on the benefits of games and sports and what you got out of it. It’d be great to hear from the champion (you)!