It’s not that I wasn’t grateful – it’s that I didn’t expect my time as an athlete to come to such an abrupt, unpredictable ending.
I was playing college hockey at the time, and some sneaky concussion symptoms crept up after a tournament game in Quebec City – ultimately leading to about 5 months of headaches, nausea, and trouble sleeping.
After discussing the upcoming year’s timeline with my parents following the injury, and acknowledging the unfortunate timing and duration of the concussion symptoms (I had just been cleared to start exercising and training camps were a week around the corner), I decided to hang up my skates for good.
Years later, I reflect and wonder if I would have behaved differently had I known that specific game in Quebec City would be my last?
How much more passion, energy, drive, and thought would I have put towards that experience if I knew it would be a farewell to the sport that raised me?
Now that I’ve taken up martial arts, I have my experience from hockey to serve as a reminder to remain grateful in this, my second life as an athlete.
Besides these past experiences, I do my best to keep myself grateful through stoicism, teaching, and daily reflection through journaling.
1. Stoicism
Stoic philosophy is understood by many as taking misfortunes in stride and working towards not obsessing over the uncontrollable parts of life. By accepting inevitabilities instead of allowing yourself to be frustrated by them, stressful, unfortunate, and even tragic situations become easier to navigate.
Likewise, the awareness that comes along with stoicism can make for more grateful individuals.
A major tenant of stoicism is fully accepting the finite nature of life. Understanding and reminding oneself of this is a major contributor to being grateful.
In Meditations, famous stoic Marcus Aurelius writes,
“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
Firstly, this quotation reminds me to have a generally grateful, positive, energetic approach to living.
But secondly, this quotation is something I think about in regards to exercise and sports. It’s an odd and rather dark thing to consider, but one that is absolutely true: Every time you practice or play your sport could be your last.
People often become grateful once it’s too late – after retirement or injury has forced an end to their days as an athlete. The saying, “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone” rings particularly true in these scenarios of abrupt athletic endings.
Sometimes, athletes are gifted rare moments of clarity during temporary setbacks from injuries. Time away from the sport results in time to reflect, digest, and process the meaning and place of sport in one’s life.
For these individuals, a return to play several weeks or months later is an opportunity to embody their newfound gratefulness. Unfortunately, people get used to things quite fast, and the appreciation that comes with the novelty of time-off from sport quickly fades.
I’ve begun to find comfort in the gentle reminder that every time I practice or compete in my sport, I am moving one session closer to the end.
It’s a reminder to give it my all, hold nothing back, and live and act as though my time is limited – because it is. I find this more empowering than scary, and it helps me stay grateful to be an athlete.
2. Teaching
Teaching is a privilege for many reasons. For one, you get to create your ideal environment for learning and development. Maybe that’s something you never had as a student and now is your chance to provide students with what you lacked.
If that’s not rewarding and doesn’t make you feel grateful to participate in sport, I don’t know what will.
Being on the other side of the curtain – behind the scenes – shows you all that goes into organizing practices, games, and competitions. It’s no surprise that one’s approach to being an athlete changes after witnessing the athletic process from a different point of view.
Being a teacher or coach gives you different perspectives you didn’t know existed as a student or athlete. For one, teachers and coaches get to see parts of themselves in developing athletes.
Seeing a child or young adult with so much in front of them – with so much potential, hope, desire, energy – is often incredibly empowering for someone older or with more experience.
This reminder of once being young or inexperienced, and how time can pass more quickly than you can stop to acknowledge it, can make even the busiest individuals pause for a moment to appreciate the point they’ve reached in their athletic endeavours.
3. Journaling
I’ve been a huge advocate of journaling since I took up the habit a few months ago. There’s something special about sitting down to write out your daily reflections, and it brings a type of clarity I’ve never experienced from anything else.
Journaling allows me to pick out the best parts of my day, and I’m often reminded that my happiest moments are when I’m on the mats, teaching, training, and learning.
Now, I didn’t become grateful for life as an athlete after a single journal entry where I described a training session that went better than expected. Instead, I’ve come to learn how grateful I am because of the consistency of my journal entries. Night after night, week after week, I notice the patterns in my reflections.
I actually began doing a daily reflection challenge, and it made me realize just how much I value being an athlete.
By writing down something positive, something negative, and something to look forward to from each day, I am able to see an overwhelming trend. My good days are defined by participation in my sport or general physical activity, and my bad days are defined by lack of these, my favorite pastimes.
Being Grateful Requires Constant Reminders
Gratefulness is often brought on by a specific event or realization, and these moments don’t come often. For most, gratefulness is temporary – and when it inevitably wears off, people tend to return to taking things for granted.
Daily reflection through journaling, teaching, and basic stoic philosophy remind me to be grateful each and every day.
It’s easy to get caught up in the chaos of life – and busy, stressed, worried individuals hardly have time for being grateful.
Being an athlete is a privilege – take the time to recognize what you have so you can fully enjoy it while it’s available.
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