Also a word of advice when it comes to strength coaches—do not anger them. They can be a great resource and help you in so many ways but if you upset them, they can make your life a special kind of hell. I promise that if you put in a great deal of hard work, you’ll help your teammates, your coaches, and most importantly—yourself. And everyone lives in harmony.
The relationship that was most important to me as a student was my academic coach. You should really listen to them when they suggest what classes would be best for you to take with your schedule. They know what they’re doing. They are also a great resource when you feel like you need some extra help in a class. Don’t be embarrassed to go to them—even with just the slightest issue. They’re there to help you succeed.
6. At what point during school did you start to focus on your career and thinking about what you wanted to do in the future?
My future career was always on my mind since I started my collegiate education but it definitely became more focused probably a year or two before I graduated from ASU. I always knew that I wanted to work in sports but I just had to decide in which capacity. I had an idea that sports journalism and PR was something that interested me so I asked our team’s SID if I could tag along and shadow them. I ended up really enjoying it but I didn’t realize how much writing actually went into journalism and frankly, I don’t enjoy writing enough to make it a focal point of my career. My advice would be to use those who are around you every day. If you think you may be interested in a position in the medical field, ask your athletic trainer if you can shadow them and learn from them. It will probably open your eyes and give you a firsthand look at what that job is really like. It can encourage and solidify your passions or, like me, make you realize that it’s actually something that doesn’t interest you that much.
7. Looking back at your time as a student-athlete, is there anything you would have done differently?
Looking back, I think the only thing that I would’ve done differently is to reach out and get to know more of my fellow student-athletes. They know exactly what you’re going through living life as both a college student and athlete, so relating to them is a breeze. It’s easy to get comfortable in your bubble and just hang out with your teammates, but I wish I would’ve taken the time to get to know more of my peers. Plus, they’ll probably show up to your games and make you pretty cool posters.
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Step 4: Prioritize within Your Success Wheel
In any strategic or tactical effort (and as emphasized in the Prioritize aspect of the success wheel), you have to make decisions about where to put your resources and focus your time. It is no different with the success wheel. In order to illustrate and provide an example, we interviewed Pim Thirati, a former student-athlete in golf from the University of Illinois. The following is an excerpt in which she offers her advice on what the most important part of her success wheel was.
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PIM THIRATI
(former golf student-athlete at the University of Illinois)
The most important parts of my success wheel would be Relationship Building, Time Management, and Motivation. Being a student-athlete has definitely taught me all the aspects of the success wheel to a certain extent, but I would say these three aspects continued to be the most impactful after I have graduated.
Working closely in a team with coaches as well as the athletics department, the media, fans, and competitors has taught me how to interact and build relationships with other people, which are very crucial skills in life after college. Balancing between golf and school has taught me how to prioritize my time wisely. Working in sports can be hectic and, depending on your responsibilities, you could be working with various projects at once. Being able to manage my time is one thing I found very helpful for my career. Putting a substantial amount of time and effort into a sport you are passionate about requires a high intrinsic motivation. I believe this is something that sets student-athletes apart. I have invested in one sport for over ten years and as a result, I tend to be very self-driven and self-motivated in other aspects of my life as well.
My advice for current and future student-athletes is to try to not lose sight of other intangible skills you are learning outside of your sport. It is easy to get caught up in the wins and losses. In the end, I really don’t remember the putts I missed. I remember the friends I’ve made and the grind we went through. The wins and losses WERE a big deal but looking back, they didn’t define me and I’m glad I didn’t let it take over my life. The end result WAS a big deal but the process is what shaped me.
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CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter provides a tool you can adopt and implement to help guide and focus your efforts over the course of your time as a student-athlete. Maybe you looked at the picture of the success wheel and skipped the words. But we hope you read this chapter and started to wonder whether now is the time to build your own success wheel.
Secret 4
Acquire the Life Skills You Need to Succeed
THE SECRET IN A FEW WORDS
We all want to succeed in life. No surprise there. But in order to achieve success and accomplish notable goals, certain skills are needed. Sport teaches an abundance of life lessons many people are unable to learn in a classroom or anywhere else in life. These life lessons can occur for many reasons, but the majority of us learn the most from failure (which sport easily provides). Getting things wrong or failing always clarifies the need to acquire certain new skills in order to prevent repeating the same outcome. So, learn from your failures, and the real secret is to gain the life skills you need to succeed.
As a student-athlete, you have the opportunity to develop many life skills through your sport. and as you mature as an athlete, learning those skills will become easier but also more important. There is no doubt you’ll need various tools to succeed at whatever goal you pursue, but recognizing what to learn is one of life’s vitally important secrets.
LIFE SKILLS YOU NEED TO SUCCEED
Sport can help a young person develop key skills such as time management, competitive response, a true work ethic, goal setting, resiliency, and values clarification. The earlier you are able to recognize what these skills are and how to develop them, the more you can improve those skills. These “assets” are important not only for success as a student-athlete but also for future success as an individual and working professional. Not all skills are part of your natural human makeup. Some need to be developed from the ground up, and it helps to have a little guidance in which skills to think about the most. To open this chapter, we noted that learning from losing was a secret. But we want to be clear that losing is not a habit you want to repeat. So minimize your losses . . . but learn from them when they happen.
Dawn Buth, a former professional tennis player and student-athlete at the University of Florida, featured below, talks about which life skills were most important for her as a student-athlete, as a professional athlete, and as a working professional. She is currently Associate Director of Strategic Communication and Education at the NCAA’s Sport Science Institute.
The first life skill Buth spoke about was a work ethic and how it was a key tool she learned as a student-athlete that has been foundational to her career development. We asked her to explain why a strong work ethic is so important. She offered the following explanation and supporting points.
For me, work ethic has meant approaching everything I do with focus and commitment. It means having the self-awareness to understand my strengths and limitations, and the ability to maximize my capabilities within any given moment. It also means making short-term sacrifices and working through discomfort to accomplish long-term goals. When I retired from