I have always been a boy with a distinct personality: cheerful and good humored. Inspired by the philosophy of my maternal grandfather, my "nana", I have always faced challenges with a smile. From the age of 12 sports took a substantial part in my daily decisions and routines. From that early age, I felt that my life changed, because besides wanting to be an excellent student and a positive person, I also wanted to look for my best qualities in my sport, football, and to execute them on the field like a great goalkeeper.
Indeed, the qualities we execute on the field come from our ability to retain knowledge and to apply it in certain situations, depending on the stimuli. But, without a doubt, this ability to acquire knowledge comes from effort.
This was the most important pillar that top-level sport provided me with. Effort. With football, I realized that we not only have to work hard and persistently, but also in a smart way. When I talk about this "working smart," I mean the ability to discover new tools that enhance my main job, playing football. For example, we have: gym work, nutrition, mental work, tactical work, among others...
In sports, more specifically in my sport, there are four fundamentals for success on the field: the tactical component, the technical component, the physical component, and the psychological component. These four fundamentals need to be in balance, otherwise there ends up being a compensation of one to the detriment of the other. Of these four I emphasize mainly the mental component, not because it is the most important or because it is something you work on in a mysterious way. I highlight the mental component because it is often neglected.
How many times have we heard stories about athletes who are very good technically, but when faced with daily situations they lose their focus? Many times... there has to be the ability, on the part of the athlete (who is also a person) to focus on the essential and on what is important to him: His work. We can't always control everything around us.
The only thing we control is our performance. If we focus too much on the factors outside our performance, we don't progress. We are only wasting energy. This idea should not only be present in the social environment concerning the athlete, but also in the daily life of the person who is an athlete.
Therefore, not only is there a physical and psychological effort related to the execution of exercises and training, but also an effort to do this mental gymnastics and look for new ways to evolve outside of the "natural habitat", the field. Without a doubt, being an athlete has given me many qualities and abilities that will be fundamental for life. I say "for life" because they are effectively for life.
The capacity for effort, working in an intelligent way, not having limits, etc... are all qualities that I acquired and that I am sure I will take with me into my future. Even though I know that the future is partially unknown and the past is a story, I only focus on the "now" because that is where I have control.
As our Imam of time has conveyed to us, our life will always be a learning experience, and there is never an end to that learning experience. So it is only up to me, as an athlete and a person, to take the learnings from the past, apply them in the "now," and hope to learn even more in the future.
David Aly
