5 Benefits of graduating from college as a student athlete – Part 2

The fourth benefit is time management skills. It is very important to have good time management skills. Being a college student athlete, it is something that you will have to figure out quickly, or you may be in a bit of strife.

It comes with being a student athlete and a skill that you will have with you after graduating and entering into the workforce as well. Employers certainly look for that in their employees. If you don’t adapt, then you will fail, because it is not easy to be a student athlete.

The time commitment that you put into your full-time training and then to also understand that you have got full-time studies. If you don’t do that then you are not going to be training full-time, whatsoever.

There are team meetings, gym sessions and travelling, to name a few. You have got this packed schedule of classes and training around that.  You need to turn in your assignments on time, and still do the work that you are missing. The biggest valuable lesson that you learn throughout your time in college is to manage your time.

You are going to jump into the working world and time management is important because it follows the exact same concept. You are going to be pulled in six different directions but still have KPIs to meet.

KPIs are key performance indicators and every employer wants to know that you are meeting those KPIs with everything that is happening in your personal life, training and team play that you are doing, plus all your time at work.

Time management skills are probably one of the biggest things you will gain from this as a student athlete. You will be excused from classes if you have a tournament, or a training session, match or a game, but that doesn’t mean you are excused from the work that is done in that class.

The US look to hire student athletes really before anyone else because of all the other benefits that you get from graduating as a student. You were a full-time athlete; you were successful, and you graduated. You have just obtained so many directly transferable skills, that you probably do not even realize you have, but you just ascertain these over times. You gain all of this real-world experience without becoming aware of it.

You evolve into this self-sufficient, functioning adult.

The fifth benefit is the life skills, the life lessons, the maturity, your growth and your personal development that you gain. You grow so much as an individual when you are on your own. When you are living at home with mom and dad where your laundry is still done and they still pick up things for you, you don’t have to worry. Money is not too much of an issue and you just go to school and do your thing.

But when you are away from mom and dad, you have stepped out of that comfort zone that you have grown up with and you have inserted yourself into an environment where you have to learn to be self-sufficient. You have to do your own laundry, pick up after yourself, and deal with other people all the time. You cannot just go home when things get difficult.

If you are shy, you have to speak up.  You have to have a voice if you want help, or need things. It is a complete transformation of an individual. It is about being responsible for yourself and being successful. With an opportunity like this, being successful in your education and your training, and being an asset, you are putting yourself out there to help others. All the networking and meeting new people will open doors for you.

You have to establish a new comfort zone and surround yourself with people that are positive influences and people that are going to help you in the long run. It is not what you know, it is who you know.

If individuals go over and they struggle to assert themselves into a new environment, where they just sit by themselves in a dorm room and don’t get out and get involved in things, it becomes very tough. They don’t last in that sort of environment and may even come home early. But there is still a huge benefit of going over for a year and you don’t graduate with a degree. Even though you did not do all four years and get a degree, you still come back with life lessons that you did not have before. That is the knowledge and experience of what it is like to be in a place that is completely different.

Growth, development, mentally and physically is what sets you up for your adult life. Going to college and getting involved in different activities with different people and doing different things to figure out yourself and your place in the world.

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