For some people, sports, and participation in sports is a way to exercise, maintain healthy body weight, and get rid of stress. Sports promote active and healthy lifestyle. The variety of sports people can participate in is enormous. There are both individual and team sports, and each carries certain advantages. Now, we mentioned sport is an exercise for the body, but it is one for the mind as well.
Participating in sports can be beneficial for our mind as well, teach us important life lessons, and as we mentioned, improve our writing skills. The list of benefits of sports is long, but we’re going to focus on how sports improve people’s writing skills.
- Improve ability to perform under pressure. While it is true that sports helps people relief from stress, practicing sports is actually a stressful experience. Athletes and participants in sport activities are put under pressure all the time. And the competition is fierce. In order to survive, one must find a way to perform, and even improve his performance under pressure. Now writing is very much the same. People in the writing industry have deadlines. And essays in college also have deadlines. The mere assumption that there is a deadline looming ahead puts pressure on the writer. And he/she must cope with the stress of it.
- Setting goals. In sports, as in writing, setting proper goals and planning accordingly is the key to success. Athletes set goals all the time. For example, they don’t say it publicly, but you can imagine strikers in soccer set goals for each season like “scoring a goal at least every second match”. And they give their best to fulfill those standards. In writing setting a goal means to plan accordingly. Especially for book writing, writers usually set goals to write 50 pages per day (just an example). Once the goal is set, it is important to achieve it.
- As in many things in life, there are failures and successes. In sports, there are winners and losers. Sport teaches people to accept and cherish the success, but also, embrace the failure as gift, a notice to improve and a positive spirit. Handling success is essential for writers as well. Some novels/essays/articles are instant hit, while others stay hidden from the masses and only few read them. That doesn’t essentially mean the article is not well written. A lower mark on an essay always comes with guidelines how to improve for the next one.
- Focus on things you are good at. Nobody can be expert for everything. The same principle applies in writing. Maybe you are good for writing essays. Some are good in the health niche, some in the fashion niche, and some in the fantasy niche. But anyway, it is important to focus on what you do good, and stick to it. Little experimentation is good from time to time, but if it doesn’t work out, it is time to get back to basics.
- Be honest to yourself. You are your own best critic. Everything you are doing something wrong, have the courage to admit it. When you accept that fact, it is easier to change something in your writing, and improve the areas that need polishing. You can fool everyone around you, but you can never fool yourself.