How Playing Soccer Taught Me That I Can’t Get Everything I Want In Life

I have always been the type of women who pushes herself to achieve, despite the challenges I have faced in my life over the last 23 years. For a long time, I thought that working to achieve my goals would get me everything I want in life.

This mindset has made me an overachiever, no matter what I do, whether it’s been involving myself in sports, being a part of the drama club, performing in the band and chorus, or participating in the creative writing club in my community.

Believe it or not, though, there were some things I tried that I couldn’t achieve. It wasn’t because I didn’t try my best; it was simply because I didn’t possess the physical skills I needed to participate in these activities.

I remember being involved in basketball and baseball, and though I loved them both, I wanted to try something new: soccer. My parents were supportive of my decision to join our community’s soccer team, and they agreed to let me try it out.

I remember being so excited to explore a whole new sport with my friends from basketball and baseball!

Little did I know that my time playing soccer wouldn’t go the way I had planned…

On the first day of practice, I went out to the soccer field feeling ready to go. Once I got on the field, though, I realized that I was not going to be successful at this sport due to my physical limitations. I had trouble kicking the soccer ball during practice, so I became very frustrated. My parents and I decided that I should not continue play soccer because it just wasn’t practical for me. I prided myself on working hard and being successful at everything I tried, so it was very difficult to accept that this defeat was simply due to my own physical limitations.

So, how did I learn to accept that I can’t have everything I want in life?

I had to learn to say to myself, “It’s okay that you couldn’t get everything you want.”

If you are struggling to deal with feelings that you failed because you weren’t able to achieve something you set out to do, I hope you are able to tell yourself that not always succeeding is perfectly OK. I know it may be disappointing to accept in the beginning, but learning to appreciate failure is part of life. We all go through challenges, especially when we fail to reach our desires. the It’s not easy to admit that you couldn’t achieve the goal you wanted, but it’s an important part of growing as a person, and we’re all in this process of accepting our limits on our journeys. When I tried soccer, I learned to accept failure.

I hope that, by reading my story, you can learn to accept your failures, too.