Was overweight and had crazy anxiety issues, so I tried out for the football team and got in as an nth string running back. Offensive coach seemed to hate me, I was late to practise often, when I would get out of breath I’d basically just give up, and once a guy wrapped me up I never carried on pushing for the extra couple of yards.
After a year and a half of him not so subtly telling me to get my shit together, I hit the gym seriously this time, lost a ton of fat and put on loads of muscle. Even though I wasn’t the most athletic by this point I had learned what to do, even if the more athletic kids could put it into practise better than me. I would turn up to practise early and help out the rookies, show them what to do and all that.
After half a year of this, plus a summer of me taking my health very seriously, I came back for my final year lean and da remote athletic. Coach started making good-natured jokes about me, started putting me on the field when we our starter was out and we needed someone reliable to make short yardage until the starter was ready again. Then I got moved onto slot receiver and my football world flipped upside down, I was used to getting pummelled so the inside routes didn’t phase me, and when since I had such a run up compared to most plays I did as an RB I was putting defenders twice my size on the ground.
I went from nth strong nobody who didn’t belong to the team to someone being moved around the field to different positions depending on the play.
When I first started playing I utterly hated that coach, by the end of it I think he was one of the best influences on my life I’ve ever had. It makes so much sense now, he’s also a short guy, he used to be a fat kid (his nickname is Chunky), and he basically just tells you to either do what you know you need to do, pay attention when you need to, try your best with every rep, and if you can’t be bothered then just go home.
I take the guy’s philosophy into all areas of my life now. Just do what I know is needed to get where I need to be, it I honestly still don’t make then maybe it isn’t for me, but never give up until you absolutely know you can’t do it (and in 99% of cases, anyone can do it). I honestly credit the man for the way my career is going, 2 years out of university and I earn mother than either of my parents ever made, 99th percentile for my age group, and it keeps going up.
On so many occasions the man literally just told me to shut the fuck up and get on with it. Went in an overweight spoiled brat, and came out someone who could push themselves through rough patches.