How Sports Help Build a Career


Today, sports have gained a foothold in the practice of many companies. A fitness club in a social package is already the norm, and joint sports activities and even marathons are becoming part of the corporate culture. It is unlikely that the presence of their own soccer team in a company will play a decisive role for a candidate in making a decision about employment, although there are cases when the presence of a soccer team in the company plays a decisive role for the candidate.

Recent Cornell University studies have shown that people who had an active hobby in high school are more successful in later life and careers. Now employers are more likely to hire someone who gives a positive answer. Such employees work better as part of a team and are more likely to show leadership qualities. Let’s take a look at how athletic performance leads to career success.

Sports help you stay productive at work

No matter how hard you try to maintain a work-life balance, a successful career takes up a lot of time and energy. Your body needs resources to keep you from being exhausted at work. You can replenish them with sports. According to the World Health Organization, physical activity has a positive effect on health and prevents many diseases. But office work reduces movement to a minimum: many employees, in general, reduce the workout to jogging from the office chair to the meeting room. All this leads to the fact that a person is tired, often sick, and cannot find the strength to work productively. To avoid the negative consequences, you need to move regularly. Sports will replenish your strength and help you cope with overload at work.

Exercise saves you from burnout

Any job is stressful for your body. The good news is that it’s treatable in a few simple steps: after exercise, the body releases endorphin, a happiness hormone, the human body relaxes, and emotional tension is markedly reduced. In addition, in 2019, the journal JAMA Psychiatry published a study that confirmed that physical activity helps the body cope with stress and prevents mental illness.

Corporate sports help to make friends with colleagues

Joint training, sports games, and competitions help you make friends with colleagues and get to know better those with whom you’ve been chatting at the water cooler for a long time. The atmosphere of training sets up for informal communication, physical activity improves mood, and people see each other from a new perspective. And teamwork unites and strengthens friendships with colleagues. Just do not try to be a champion. Leave the focus on the result for office tasks, and just have fun in training.

In many of the leading companies, sports are an integral part of the corporate culture. Bain & Company annually holds the Bain World Cup – rugby, volleyball, and soccer competition in which employees from all over the world take part. McKinsey, a global consulting company, also has similar events – they conduct onsite training to help prepare for competitions between European offices. The Barcelona office has a sailing team, and employees play volleyball on Saturdays. If your company also has corporate sports, don’t ignore this opportunity. Sign up for training and get to know your colleagues in an informal setting.

Team sports improve soft skills

Most companies choose team games for corporate sports. This makes sense because team games develop the desire to help others, the ability to complete tasks, and perseverance. Unlike individual athletes, those who work together are focused on group interests rather than personal interests. They love order, can organize others, and are always in control of themselves. All of this comes in handy if you are going to build a successful career because team players are valued much more than singles.

Sports build character

Sports build business-critical competencies such as discipline, perseverance, and endurance. Sport builds character and promotes positive thinking – without these qualities it’s easy to “burn out” on a new project. And this is not some truth from a Soviet poster from a ski lodge, this is my own belief.

However, sports do not take time from the business, but rather help to find solutions to problems at work. Investing time in sports always returns with success and self-confidence.

Sports develop the skill to achieve goals

Sports develop the skill to achieve goals, it helps a lot in business. The more regularly I exercise, the easier things go in my work and personal life. In addition, any exercise entails a release of the endorphin hormone, which helps reduce stress and improve mood. So regular exercise helps me to relax and restore my energy. During training, you disconnect from worries, switch only to physical activity.

Sports teach you never to give up

For an entrepreneur, sports that have a big goal in mind are first and foremost helpful: like running a marathon in New York or swimming across Gibraltar. The goal immediately dictates to you the rules of the game. There is no doubt about whether to get up at 6 a.m., whether to run if it rains, etc. Over time, there will be no choice in business either – you have to reach your goals, even if no one believes in you, at any cost, at any time of the day, often in more than one year.

The most important thing the sport teaches me is to never give up. It’s the same in business: the fight is not over until you give up.

Sports help you set challenging goals and achieve them

Startups will benefit from moving sports because most startups are in the IT industry, where you have to sit in a chair at a computer quite a lot of the time.

Sports give you a chance to set challenging goals and achieve them. The second thing any sport teaches us is discipline and responsibility. When you have a fairly rigid work and training schedule, you have to be disciplined and have to develop time management and planning skills. In addition, you learn to delegate authority. If you know you have six workouts this week, you have to plan your company processes in advance and allocate them.

Sports brings creative ideas

Sport promotes sober judgment and creativity in situations that require an extraordinary way of solving. Surprisingly, sport reboots the brain in such a way that even when we feel at a dead end, we find a way out of it. Try it!

Sports activates brain function

Exercise strengthens areas of the brain responsible for social interaction, orientation in space, and memory. And it also helps reduce the number of nerve cells lost during arguments with colleagues.

Sports gives confidence

Fitness club-goers feel more attractive and confident. Nothing inspires an evening workout quite like the impressive muscle definition of a colleague in the next department.

Sports relieve negativity

Physical activity not only relieves stress but also protects against emotional burnout. All this happens thanks to the production of a protein that breaks down kynurenine (a substance accumulated as a result of stress).

Conclusion

Being a responsible leader and performing huge functions is difficult if you do not keep fit. You need to have a lot of energy and constantly replenish it. Sport is a discipline. It is also a desire to improve yourself because if you practice, you always see progress. Sport helps also to overcome any stress at work.

Author’s bio:

Jean Hartley is a professional content writer for essaywriter.nycOpens in a new tab.. She will help you to prepare an overview, report, essay, or another paper. Jean will make you amazed with the final interesting content or any other you may have for writing.

Steve Todd

Steve Todd, founder of Open Sourced Workplace and is a recognized thought leader in workplace strategy and the future of work. With a passion for work from anywhere, Steve has successfully implemented transformative strategies that enhance productivity and employee satisfaction. Through Open Sourced Workplace, he fosters collaboration among HR, facilities management, technology, and real estate professionals, providing valuable insights and resources. As a speaker and contributor to various publications, Steve remains dedicated to staying at the forefront of workplace innovation, helping organizations thrive in today's dynamic work environment.

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