Why Every Adult Should Play a Sport
From the cradle to the grave, life is all about competition. As much as we try to smooth it over, to sugar coat things, and to promote the values of teamwork, competition is part of our genes. For those of us who grew up in generation x or y, thus mostly insulated from survival urgency, many things have come to sub for the original competition, simply staying alive.
I’ll seek to enumerate just a few of the ways the need for competition manifests itself. As young as second grade(!) I can remember the competition of weight and being skinny. In fact, in sixth grade I had a teacher who would obsess to us, no less as impressionable young minds, whether she was over or under her personal ‘good’ weight of 113 lbs. As a grade schooler at a private school, the battle revolved around who got to wear makeup first, who shaved their legs, and who got the attention of the cutest eighth grade boys. It’s funny how some of those themes resurface throughout the entire life cycle of an adult female, but that’s the topic of another article.
Moving through life, the competitions morphed into not only conquests of popularity and appearance, but materialism. In middle school, I remember clothing choice being of utmost importance, probably since we had finally just graduated from years of wearing the same plaid skirts and polo tops in private school. Specifically, and now I’m dating myself, the game was owning Bongo shorts and Explorer shirts, and as many of them as possible. (As an aside I looked up whether Bongo shorts still exist. They have quite the collection at Sears!)
Fast forward another twenty plus years and not much has changed. People still obsess about their bodies whether the goal is to be skinnier, more muscular, even taller! The status symbols of ownership have gotten bigger and pricier. The most common mode of competition is, of course, your actual rat race at your job whether it be climbing the ladder at a company or raising the smartest and best children.
The issue is that these competitions are not possible to win, they’re actually making someone’s life worse since the point is to knock the other man down. The outcome is win- lose. As far as unwinnable, we live in a global society now so it’s easy to see exactly how many scores of people are prettier, richer, and smarter than you, along with their kids. Even if they aren’t, they’re probably effectively convincing you that they are through social media. (I’m not a parent of children so feel free to be offended by this. I do, however, have the smartest most beautiful dogs in the world and nothing you say can convince me otherwise).
At a previous job I remember a discussion over who had this or that purse and how hard and expensive it was to get. (Note that although I remember the race to collect all the explorer shirts quite vividly, yet no idea currently what kind of purse I’m supposed to own or want to own). These people were excited to get their bonuses (money) so they could immediately turn around and get in line for a chance to blow the money on a bag made of animal skin designed to hold more money. Weird when you put it in those terms.
My point being with the nostalgia is that humans will always find a way to compete. And even if you consider yourself non-competitive then you’re in some sort of race. And if you accept that premise then the discussion then turns how to express that in a healthy versus a harmful way. And that’s why I think all adults should play sports or fine an outlet with similar elements. Even if you were picked dead last in dodgeball or Red Rover as a kid. Even if you’re worried you’ll make a fool of yourself at that group fitness class, and even if you have no idea how to get started.
Here are a couple of ideas:
- Find a competition that will improve your life. This is where sports comes in. As a kid, participating in sports is a way to blow off that natural aggressiveness and energy in a safe and productive way. We often lack these outlets as an adult. The endpoint of a competition that will improve yourself is one where you can continue to improve and achieve without harming others.
- Find a way that your biggest competitor is yourself. In order to make this outlet a constructive instead of a destructive habit, find something where the end goal is ultimately self improvement rather than beating others.
- Find a lifelong sport. Examples of lifelong sports would be tennis, golf, running, swimming, or triathlon (no, really!) Examples of not lifelong sports would be the sports you probably did as a kid. In my case, those were pole vaulting, gymnastics, and cheerleading.
- Find an outlet with incremental goals. As a kid we used to play a game called “kill the man with the ball.” Not many incremental goals there plus the end point was to knock the other man down quite literally. Contrast that with a sport like, say, tae kwon do, where you have a series of small goals to works towards over a long period of time.
- Find an outlet that’s fun! There are lots of known benefits of play beyond fun- it can make you smarter, for one. So get out there and find a sport, or other healthy outlet, today!
