You can learn just about anything from sports. Athletes are among the most disciplined of individuals – at least, if they want to excel in their chosen game. Specifically, you can learn how to guarantee financial success by looking for lessons in a basketball game.
Basketball is one of the most popular sports in the country. If you have a teenager who loves to watch the game, you can use this as a guide to help them understand important money lessons. Almost everyone can relate to the game as it is a widely popular sport. Using it to connect with people you want to teach about finances is a great strategy. It could also work wonders for you if you are looking for inspiration as you tackle personal finance and look for financial lessons.
5 money lessons from basketball as a sport
Explaining new ideas is a lot easier to digest when associated with something we know, much more love. If basketball is a sport you follow, this is a great springboard to start with in learning the principles of finances.
It is a team sport. This is great start in getting to know more about financial management. Basketball is a team of 5 players on the court with specific roles when they are playing. Outside the court, there are other players to relieve them, coaches to give directions and assistant coaches monitoring different aspects of the game. With this in mind, personal money-matters is a lot easier to understand.
Managing your personal finances is similar to this set-up. Think of the players as family members. Each one has role to play. One could be the income earner, the other could be the planner and the rest could be your support system. All with the same goal of making sure the budget is used wisely.
Basketball frowns upon on ball hogs. It never works for these type of players for any team. They usually hold on to the ball most of the time, never passes it around and basically takes over the game on their own. In handling personal finance, you need to involve a lot of people surrounding you so they can help out. Just as they need to know what your plans are to guide you and give you that push that you need to reach your objective.
Start from the playbook. All the defensive and offensive strategies of basketball teams start from the playbook. Then they tirelessly practice it so it becomes second nature to them once they are playing on the court. This is an important basketball practice that we can apply in managing our finances. As Investopedia.com reiterates, budgeting cannot be preached enough.
Budgeting is similar to a playbook in a way that we map out how we want to execute an objective and follow it religiously. We need to stick to a budget we have committed to until we reach our objective. And we need to continue practicing it until the behavior becomes second nature to us.
Results take time. Miami Heat player Lebron James did not wake up to what he is now. He worked hard in improving his skill, put in the hours at the court and in the gym and took more shots than he could count for practice. It goes the same for the objectives we have in mind for our personal finance, it doesn’t happen overnight. The challenge is to never give up and find ways to overcome it. Living below your means or taking a second job are just steps to reach that goal.
Step one. If Dr. Naismith felt he cannot do it and just gave up, basketball would cease to exist. He could have felt frustrated before inventing the game probably because of other factors. But that did not stop him in putting together the game the world loves all over. One of the greatest financial lessons we can take from this is to just start with a the first step and continue on from there. No one ever succeeded without taking that crucial step.
Sports principles to improve financial management
Basketball is a well loved-sport because of the action, the challenges and the many things we can adapt in real life. Just like any popular sport, it has the ability to reach out to a wide audience, impact their lives and share a thing or two about the sport which can be applied in real life.
If you want to be a better financial manager, you have to seriously consider 4 sports principles that will help you improve certain habits.
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Plan. Any sport would quickly crumble and fall without proper planning. This is one of the most vital financial lessons that you need to understand. The NBA does not just start a new season without ensuring all the teams are ready physically and financially. All players are accounted for, tickets are selling, merchandise items are set and so on. This holds true for other popular sports such as NFL and NHL. If you want to be efficient in managing your finances, you have to start with a plan. You need to keep things organized because a mistake can be costly. You have to make sure that all the bills are paid off. You have to plan how you will spend your money so you will not go beyond the budget. These are among the things that you need to remember when creating your plan.
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Discipline. The next principle that you have to learn is all about discipline. Part of what makes athletes successful in their sport is their discipline and commitment to the plan – may it be their training plan or the playbook. You have to control the natural urges that will keep you from achieving your goal. In sports, the goal is usually to win the game. When it comes to your finances, the goal will depend on your personal financial plans. It can be to get out of debt or to save enough money to buy a house.
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Hardwork. After discipline comes hard work. Just like training to excel in sports is tough, maintaining a good financial standing is the same. But as you go along, you will get used to the sacrifices that you make to reach the ultimate prize. As they say, no pain no gain. If your old financial habits got you in debt, you need to break these habits and make sure that you will follow new and healthier ones. On both counts, training in sports and trimming your financial habits will help you literally live healthier lives. Sports will encourage you to take care of your physical body while proper financial management will keep you from unnecessary stress brought about by financial problems.
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Back-up. Lastly, you want to have a back-up plan. This does not only pertain to the plan for the game itself. It is a plan for life after the sport. Athletes, specifically prominent ones like basketball, earn a huge amount of money. They are only earning so much while they are in their top shape and able to win the game for their team. Once their body deteriorates, that will cost them their earning capabilities. Just look at the Espn.go.com injury list. You have injuries in almost every game. If the injury is grave, that means the end for the athlete’s career. Unfortunately, some athletes squander everything and end up with nothing once they are forced to retire. This is the same scenario for most of us. When we lose foresight to plan and live just for the day, we expose ourselves to the hard life that comes after the paycheck stops coming in.
Sports has been around since men needed entertainment and an outlet for creativity, prowess and skill. It has been much a part of our lives that we look up to the players of the sports we follow. Take basketball for example, there are a lot of take-aways and great financial lessons from the sport and even the players themselves. We can easily take notice of these and apply it in our everyday money management.