Enjoying what you do, making joy out of your job or operating a small business sometimes feels like an uphill struggle. I remember that Angela Munroe from Microsoft Devices once shared eight lessons from athletes that can help people succeed in their lives.
We love the holiday season. Isn’t it? Relaxation is the transformation we expect out of leisure days, and I enjoy a healthy mixture of adventure. When I’m not at work in the office, I’m either hiking up one side of a mountain or skiing down the other.
Managing some time out to watch the Asian Games has reminded me, once again, how much we in business can learn from the world of sport. I’m going to shed some light upon the below eight principles:
1) Focus
Successful sportsmen and women have a vision of where they want to get to, how long it should take and a strategy for how to get there. They set clear short-, medium- and long-term goals, and focus on them.
Setting targets matters in business too. But prioritizing what you need to do to get there can be one of the biggest challenges.
Keep track of your own time too and make sure it’s spent on what matters. Apps such as TimeManage.me can help.
2) Be Disciplined
Former Rugby World Cup winner, Will Greenwood, came into business later, and he has something helpful to share. And his take on this? Discipline is everything when it comes to having a successful business. Seek for success through the art of attending to detail.
Undoubtedly, your genes give you a leading edge, but it’s scion that will shape and determine your success route. Whether you are talented or a novice, you will have to work hard and put yourself out of the comfort zone to do well in sports, as well as in business.
Nicole Karlis wrote something interesting about millennial’ fitness in her Salon article. He mentioned and I acknowledge it that they want to make it more colorful and enjoyable, no matter how much they will have to spend on fitness activities and memberships. However, physical fitness gives someone more energy and concentration level to put into their work. Free applications such as Runtastic and Fitbit will surely help.
3) Plan
Careful planning and preparation is the mainstay of extreme sports. You need to carefully assess the environment you’re going into and the elements you’re likely to face. The same is true of the best-run businesses.
Technology can help you to keep tabs on your environment so you can make informed decisions and plan for change. Webinars are a great, free way to keep up with industry trends.
4) Become Competitive
Once you have the willpower to win, this fierce competitive spirit will help you out. Try to think constantly about what you can effectively do to stand out from the other competitors.
Technology is really transforming productive ways to help you outperform your rivalry firms. Again, social media platforms are a great help to engage your audience, and the marketing automation phenomena can turn your communication into the more efficient mode.
5) Build Your Team
Though many sports are often solitary and running a solo-owner business seem to feel like quite alone, but small businesses can learn a lot of things from sports team architecture.
Ask the team management and coaches, and they’ll tell you that they treat their players fairly but not equally. They recognize different abilities and talent and thus use them accordingly. The lesson comes down to us that you should be surrounded by the people who find your gaps and strengthen your abilities.
Recently my friend joined a top IT firm in Cambodia. In earlier years, the company was facing difficulty in recruiting great talent, but with success achieved with-in the years, international youth is willing to the join the firm. Cambodia Visa Online agency was a great help to my friend.
Technology has also expanded the pool of talented youth that top companies can choose from. Skype and OneDrive let meet you and share the information with remote people, anytime.
6) Tool Up
As the right kit improves an athlete’s performance, so digital media can enhance yours. I’m not suggesting that you rock up to your next investor’s meeting wearing your technology, as Forrester wrote in their one of the research reports ‘Predictions: Mobile Trends for Marketing’, “trendy technology is fun, but it doesn’t drive business results.”
The bottom line is – pick the best innovations that can help you to perform at your best. Cloud technology, mobile applications to reach the maximum of potential people, and making access to the data wherever you need – make you more productive.
7) Push Yourself
All athletes push themselves, and extreme sport is (in part) defined by risk. You need to find the courage to try new ideas and be prepared to take risks to grow and strengthen your business. As the Canadian ice hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, is famous for saying, “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
8) Be Resilient
Sport is a powerful metaphor for business when it comes to handling disappointment. Athletes don’t give up but keep on trying. They learn to harness pressure and use it to their advantage before it turns into stress. Mental strength can be a key differentiator in business. Pick yourself up and never stop learning.
And don’t forget to make time to celebrate your successes.
These are just eight ideas. I’d love to hear your thoughts on other lessons that businesses can learn from sport.