How Student Athletes Can Start Making Better Decisions Today

Student Athletes… If there’s one life skill / concept you really need to understand, it’s this. You may think a few poor decisions here and there don’t matter, and that they’re insignificant, but they’re not, and yes, they do matter. My goal with this post is to help you understand just how significant they really are and how they can have a major impact on the future you desire.

The decisions you make today matter. They are a big deal. Like the compound effect, repeated good decisions build you up, lead you higher, take you to the next level. Each step on the staircase symbolizes a good decision. Each good decision builds your platform higher and higher, allowing you to rise above the rest. 

Unfortunately, the compound effect works in both directions. Each bad decision takes you down the staircase into a deep, deep pit. The deeper you go, the harder and longer it is to recover. Trust me, I’ve been there. It sucks the life out of you when you’re trying to climb out. It is mentally, emotionally, and even physically exhausting.

All that said, I want to be very clear. We all make good and bad decisions. It all comes down to your individual decision ratio (IDR). If your ratio is 50/50 you’re average. You’re on level ground. You’re not making the playoffs, but you’re not the worst team in the league either. However, isn’t the goal to WIN? Average isn’t winning! Now, of course we’re not always going to win, but if you learn from your losses then you have a fighting chance to win next time. It’s all part of the process. To finish my point, the better the ratio, the more likely you are to win in just about every area of life. 

Whether you’re high up on your platform or deep down in a pit you have a choice. You can either be bitter and try to pull or keep others down in the pit with you or you can be better and help to pull others out with you. Same goes for those high on their platform. You can either beat others down who are also trying to rise up or you can build them up as they rise with you. Great leaders are servants. They humble themselves and help others.

One last point I’d like to make. Indecision is a decision. Being on the fence is not a good thing. You must choose. You must know what’s important to you and stand for something. You must lean in to your convictions and stick to them. If you’re a “wishy-washy” person you will never make progress in the right direction. You need positive movement with your decisions, and once you do that over and over again you create positive momentum which is your best friend when it comes to making real progress on your goals and dreams. 

So now the question becomes “How do I make better decisions starting NOW?” Stay tuned, because that’s what I’ll be covering in Part 2 of our 2 part series on better decision making.