How Emotional Intelligence Helps Us In Sport

Emotional intelligence teaches us to enjoy sport for the simple practice, without trying to outdo others, only to be ourselves and better people.

Success and achievement in sport does not just depend on physical conditions. Indeed, having a well exercised body and in great shape does not guarantee to achieve certain goals every time. Certain mental and emotional factors can influence the outcome in a competition. Find out in this article how emotional intelligence helps us in sport!

Emotional intelligence is, without a doubt, an ability that will help us overcome our most unsuspected thresholds. An additional influx of emotional energy at a critical moment can determine the end of a match, race, etc. The influence of the mind on physical resistance is more than proven. So learn to improve your mind.

What is emotional intelligence?

In 1995, American psychologist Daniel Goleman published a book called Emotional Intelligence . Emotional intelligence is first defined as the ability to feel, understand, control, and change one’s own feelings and those of others.

If we apply this quality of the human being to the field of sport, we can maximize our performance. By understanding our mood and its influence on the results, we will have a broader vision of the sport.

Emotional intelligence in sport

1. Learn to control frustration

Sport is an activity from which we can learn great lessons for other aspects of life. In this sense, managing frustration is a characteristic that we must develop and control.

Discouragement after a defeat, an injury, a goal that we cannot achieve … Any sporting frustration will be a rewarding experience.

We have to face and understand sports failure as a challenge. Don’t be downcast or disappointed. Mental toughness and the ability to excel are the key to success in this fight.

Feelings of anger, violence, revenge or resentment are not sporting or healthy values ​​in our life. So try not to harbor negative feelings and express your emotions with sportsmanship.

2. Reinforce motivation

On the way to personal or collective progress, motivation is necessary. Having a goal helps to stay alert, to fight to achieve a goal. Positive emotions in the effort to achieve a goal invite us to win, to improve ourselves as people.

In sports, it is advisable to write down and keep a small file of our progress. This way we can make comparisons.

Having a schematic picture of our strengths and weaknesses puts us in reality and allows us to be situational aware. The athlete must know his strengths and always have a positive attitude. In this way, he increases his threshold of resistance to pain and he is able to resist physical and mental fatigue.

3. Maintain perseverance

Emotional intelligence in sports is also necessary when it comes to being consistent. Perseverance gives us a character of tenacity for any activity of our life. We have to develop patience, because achievements are usually gradual. Everything is achieved on the condition of having a firm goal and being persistent.

We must not sink. Although the wind is blowing hard and the circumstances are unfavorable, we must fight beyond the limit of our strength. Through sport, one can acquire different values ​​such as the spirit of sacrifice. There are very few sensations as pleasurable as reaching a difficult goal.

4. Knowing how to lose

Another big challenge is to accept defeat. Understand that the goal of sport is not to win, but to play the sport itself. It is not the arrival that counts, but the way. Knowing how to lose, after so much effort, also makes us more tolerant, more humble. With a dose of defeat, ego and self-confidence drop to decent levels.

The world of sport is filled with people who will never make history. They will never get any medals, but they will still be glad they tried. In fact, it is possible that personal improvement is the best reward. Emotional intelligence in sport is therefore a driving force in overcoming setbacks and helping us to recover.

5. Don’t forget about empathy and sportsmanship

Empathy makes us better people. It is a human value that invites us to put ourselves in the other’s shoes and to better understand their situation. In this way, we learn to control these type of positive emotions and we value more teamwork in a sport.

Through our emotional intelligence and sportsmanship, we understand the moods of other athletes. Some athletes have become more famous more for their way of being good teammates than for their results.

Human values ​​are the most important. For this reason, you need to develop emotional intelligence in sport and in life.