Sunday, July 27, 2003

Discipline Is Hard

Glenn writes about My Failure As An Athlete, or, Why I'm Doing Data Entry Instead of Playing Minor League Baseball. Money quote:
As an athlete I was pretty much a failure. I was never one of those guys who over-hyped and failed to live up to expectations. I was a guy who had a tremendous amount of talent but never bothered to develop it. And thus, surely you have never heard of me.
Like many other things in my life I took my athletic talent for granted. If you ask any professional athlete they will tell you that talent only gets you so far. To reach the professional level of competition talent and hard work are necessary. Strangely I never learned that lesson.
I can sure relate. I was never athletic, I was just smart, but I have the same problem. Lucky for me you don't have the time limit on smart that you do on athletic skills. It took me years to get out of low-paying jobs into something that used my talents. Discipline is hard.

Sometimes we try to make sports more important than they are, but you can learn real lessons from them.