The World Cup in Russia is over. The medals have been handed out and celebrated, and the welcomes have been experienced. It is time to return to normal.
We have compiled our own list of lessons from Russia
It is also time to draw a few lessons from this World Cup. We believe that everyone can extract universal lessons applicable in sports, but also far beyond sports itself.
- Favorites do not always win – those with more money, greater tradition, and better conditions win in the long run. Professional sports is a big business, but in the short run, it is possible to disrupt the cards of even the biggest players.
- Engagement always comes before the result – work, effort, and engagement are the fuel that powers the engine. All those practices that no one watches. Every single moment when you reached your limit, crossed it, and thereby broke through your barriers. Perhaps the best example is Mandžukić’s goal in the final. How many goals in his senior career did he score this way? We believe they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And how many sprints at the goalkeeper like that did he run in his career? Innumerable. And then something like that happens in the World Cup final. Never lose hope!
- First comes the vision, then the goal; while work provides the necessary confidence – there is nothing without the initial craziness, the vision of 2-3 people. Then the vision finds its path through goals, and the dream turns into steps that need to be followed. What adds spice to the entire journey is work. Good, high-quality work makes goals achievable and turns the initial crazy vision into reality.
- Even the biggest things are possible if unity, talent, work, and expertise are behind them – if we were to choose a recipe for success in sports, it would count precisely these ingredients. Sports is not a coincidence; sports is finding a way to be better in every segment.
- The team always comes before the individual, and humility is the trait of the greatest – as crazy as it sounds, the team comes before the individual even in individual sports. No one, absolutely no one, wins alone; there is always a team, even if that team is just a coach, mom, and dad. Humility is a prerequisite for the greatest results, because the greatest do not exist without having experienced numerous defeats. Whoever has not developed enough humility to be great in defeat will never be great in victory either.
- You don’t always have to play your best to win – victories are possible even when it is not your best day. It is impossible to always play well. On the other hand, you can play your best and lose. The great ones are those who play poorly that day but manage to win. Perfection is not possible time and time again.
- Support is exceptionally powerful energy – support moves mountains and helps in fulfilling dreams. In front of the TV screen, no one has a direct influence on the outcome, but indirectly, they certainly do.
- It does not matter how small you are, but how big your dreams are and the work you invest in making them reality – whoever did not dream of reaching sporting heights as a child never became a professional athlete. Dreams give us energy, potential, and drive us, but work is what sets us on the right path.
- It’s not over until it’s over, and sometimes there is extra time – the first 5 minutes last just as long as the last 5 minutes. Time is a constant in this case. Only our perception differs. In one match, 2 goals were scored in the first 5 minutes; why shouldn’t we score 2 goals in the last 5 minutes as well? Giving up or letting up must not exist in an athlete’s vocabulary, because sporting miracles do happen, but only if you earn them!
- The mind always pushes further than the body – athletes build and protect their bodies their entire lives, but they also indirectly develop their minds—the most important “muscle.” They calculated that with all the extra time, we played one match more than the French… but in the World Cup final, the mind plays, and the body merely obeys. We are often unaware of our boundaries, and the limits we set for ourselves are only in our heads.
