Sports are wonderful, not just because they get children (and adults) outside and enjoying a physical activity but also because they can instill essential life lessons. Sports cleverly incorporate many different vital lessons in creating healthy and happy humans.

Best of all, these lessons can be learned regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Life lessons don’t discriminate, and sports help to open the door to as many as possible. Just take a look, and it’s clear to see.

Perseverance

If there’s one thing that sports can teach a person, it’s to never give up on their dreams. There are many challenges and obstacles that can arise when enjoying a favorite activity or sport.

These challenges can be simple, such as finding the time to attend practice. Or they can be significant, such as working through an injury (temporary or permanent). Consider all of the star athletes in a given field – the odds are more than good that each and every one of them has received an injury specific to their field. But that didn’t stop them; it just gave them even more reason to hold onto their determination.

Sportsmanship

The phrase ‘nobody likes a poor loser’ is relatively common, especially when it comes to competition. Yet sports do an adequate job of teaching children (and adults) how to handle a loss with grace.

Sports can also teach all sorts of lessons when it comes to winning gracefully, as all athletes will find themselves on either side of victory. One could say that sports teach empathy and humility.

Teamwork

Team sports earn their description, as working as a team is essential for their success. As such, there’s no better place to learn about being part of the team. A valued team member understands that not everyone gets to be the star all the time, and sometimes it matters more to lay the foundation for a victory. This is yet another lesson that sports do well to instill into players.

Leadership

There’s a fair amount to learn about leadership in the world of sports. There are natural leaders in any given sport, especially ones that encourage coaches, planning, or strategy. These fields help to further train leaders, teaching them effective leadership tactics from an early age.

Not Everything is Fair

Learning about fairness (or the lack of it) is always a hard lesson to learn. Yet, the simple truth is that life is not always fair. This is something that participation in sports teaches quite nicely. Sometimes it isn’t the team the worked hardest that gets the win. It happens. It may not feel fair, but it doesn’t change the facts. Through sports, we can learn different ways to cope with this disappointment.

Article originally published on KarlMotey.co