Sports Hint at Our Strengths

This insight struck me this morning as I was out walking and saw a court full of eager, early-rising tennis players. I reflected on how I’ve never had much interest in swatting that little yellow ball in a manner that places it in just the right location across a net; perhaps because the times when I have tried tennis proved quite frustrating.

 

I started thinking about other sports that involve a small ball and significant hand-eye coordination—namely, golf and baseball—and realized these have been frustrating to me as well. There’s something about the precise swing arc involved with tennis, golf and baseball that I don’t quite get instinctively or intentionally. Although I spent several years attempting baseball as a youth, I’ve only flirted with tennis and golf and neither has become a habit.

 

As my walk continued this morning, I then pondered the athletic endeavors in which I have had more natural interest and talent. During sandlot football games, I was the guy who could throw the pigskin way down the field into a receiver’s outstretched arms. When it came to the defensive side of baseball, I could throw and catch pretty well. During my coming of age years along the ocean in Florida, I became excellent at throwing a Frisbee with accuracy and distance. And although I haven’t played in a decade, I could serve a volleyball with intensity and once brought my team back from a 12-2 deficit to win without ever surrendering the ball.

 

All of these sporting activities mentioned in the paragraph above have something in common that differentiates them from golf, tennis or baseball. They don’t require quite as much precision and discipline in the physical performance that delivers success. The motions that are involved—hurling a football, Frisbee or baseball, slapping a volleyball with the open-hand or fist—do require accuracy, but in more of a pure strength or effort sort of manner. They are more forgiving than the efforts requiring the finest of motor skills. They are big picture athletic moves, if you will, as opposed to moves requiring heavy concentration on minutia.

 

This all fit together nicely this morning as I drew parallels to my strengths. I have natural instincts toward big picture thinking, but don’t tend to love execution details nearly as much (although I’ve learned to do them well). I enjoy change and variety, and get bored with doing the same, tedious task again and again. I thrive with ambiguity and mystery, and don’t necessarily always need to know the outcome. In short, I think and work and create more like a guy heaving a football downfield and hoping the receiver catches it then a golfer meticulously working a plan to reduce the slice-percentage from his swing a little more each Sunday.

 

This tells me that nearly everything about us holds clues to the natural talents we can develop into strengths and utilize for maximum effectiveness. Take note of not just the sports you enjoy, but the kind of books, movies, music and art toward which you gravitate. What sort of persons become quick friends? What kind of household or yard chores energize you and which frustrate or bore you? What food do you like to prepare?

 

All of these hints can fit together into a holistic framework that helps you to further “get” you—and realize that it’s okay to be wired how you’re wired.