3 Reasons Why Sports Are Awesome

I love sports. I think they, much like butter, make everything they touch better. When I hear high school administrators griping about problems they're having with their students, I think to myself: they need to get those kids in athletics! When I hear a mom worry about the self-esteem of her young daughter, I suggest she sign her up for a team. And when I talk to a young person who's struggling to find a good group of friends, I ask them if they've considered joining a team.

Why? Because sports are awesome...check it out!

Here are three reasons why sports are amazingly awesome

• Attitude. It's a choice each person has to make every morning when we wake up...appreciate life or grump about it. Sports teach us that attitude is everything. Athletes make majorly embarrassing errors in front of their friends and family pretty regularly (sport is a tough teacher), but they believe wholeheartedly that the next opportunity will be their time to shine. The athletic attitude says that batting.300 is awesome...even though that means they've struck out seven out of ten times. The choice to focus on the positive is one of the more awesome things about sports.
• Awareness. There are so many things that are amazing about sports and I think we sometimes overlook them. I'm going to help you out today...let's remember why we love sports. Warm up music with awful (but catchy) songs. Hot and sticky gyms. Stinky athletes. When they "get it". Road trips. Watching new friendships form. That first whistle. Successful plays. Celebrating the big win. Rebounding from the big loss. The unconditional love of "team". I could go on and on.
• Authenticity. This is another way of talking about the Pyramid of Success' poise. It's being cool with who we are. Sports shows are athletes that they can be hyper competitive...and their teammates will still be friends with them. They can be goofballs...without judgment. They can be their nerdy, studying-on-the-bus-while-everyone-else-is-watching-a-movie self...and their teammates will respect them. Sport teaches our athletes to be comfortable in their own skin.

In a great TED talk, the 3 A's of Awesome, Neil Pasricha talks about how to see the awesome in everyday things. He writes a blog called 1000 Awesome Things where we can go and experience the wonder of regular stuff. Check out his talk where he shows us that finding awesome things is a choice we should make.

Sport is a wonderful teacher. I've said many times before that athletics prepares its participants for life in such a fun and amazing way. Now that it's been confirmed that sports are awesome, go out and enjoy the wonder of athletics!