A Pro Footballer’s Take On How To Succeed
Guest Post by: Miles Lyons
Hey everyone! It's Miles Lyons here. I am a professional footballer in the United Soccer League (USL), and along with football, I have made it my mission to support athletes on their respective journeys. First off, I want to say thank you to FC GameChanger for letting me be a guest writer on his platform.
We both have a strong passion for football and helping the next generation of athletes, so I’m really excited that we get to collaborate on this together. I also write on my own platform called The Movement Newsletter, which provides honest insight into my life, football career, and my business called We Move Mentoring. If you enjoy this post, feel free to check out those links and share them!
Talent is valuable in any profession, but it isn’t the deciding factor. I have been around so many footballers that have an insane amount of natural ability, but they don’t reach their full potential because they take their talents for granted. In this post, I am going to discuss why talent alone is never enough to achieve our goals, in the hopes to encourage all of us to trust our abilities but not rely on them.
Lets get moving!
Growing up playing sports, I started to realize the difference in treatment that certain players on my team would receive. This could be due to being the coach's favorite player, the most talented player, the coach’s son, etc. Through those experiences, I found that the best environments were the ones where the most gifted players were pushed the hardest rather than being let off the hook.
I was definitely a talented youth player, but there were some kids who were just next level. I mean, the things that they would be able to do in training and in games—unbelievable. It's pretty common for coaches to let the most talented players do whatever they want, slack off in training, and have a bad attitude.
That certainly happened to players that I grew up on teams with. And when those same athletes started to compete in more professional environments, they struggled to keep up mentally, because they didn’t develop the skills to deal with those settings.
Coaching athletes with high-level natural ability can be intimidating. After all, you want to keep your best players happy, right? This dilemma is what a lot of coaches and parents face when it comes to sports. Now, I’m not saying talented players should have a miserable experience.
But many of them simply need the right kind of guidance to reach their full potential in the long run. If athletes don’t build the right habits early, they won’t reach the heights they’re capable of. When coaches, parents, and players can strike the balance between building confidence and pushing for constant improvement, that’s when we see the best results.
When I was a freshman in high school, I had the opportunity to play up a couple of age groups (00s/99s) and test my skills against older players. I also trained with my regular age group (2002s) once or twice a week.
There was one moment that really stuck with me: I was complaining about training with my regular 2002 group, and my father told me sternly,“Watch what you say. Don’t get confused because you are allowed to play up on different teams. You have not done anything yet, you’re not on a higher pedestal than anyone.” That conversation changed my life. Not only has it prevented me from making excuses about my environment, but it pushes me to focus on what I can do to better myself. That message can apply to everyone!
For instance, rather than focusing on our current situations, we can put all of our energy towards figuring out new ways to constantly improve. This can look like doing extra individual sessions, watching film, doing prehab/rehab, hitting the gym, etc. All of those aspects are things that anyone can do regardless of whether things are going their way or not. You know?
Support systems are crucial when it comes to keeping an athlete grounded, but even if parents and coaches aid their athletes in the best ways they know how, it’s ultimately up to the athlete to accept challenges and remain open to new perspectives. It’s like the saying, “You can only lead the horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” The athlete must want to achieve success for themselves more than their support system wants it for them.
Here I go with another quote, but have you ever heard this line from Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility”? That statement is very relevant to this topic. As athletes, we have to be responsible with our talent so that we don’t waste it. The discipline to become the best version of ourselves has to come from us and no one else. It is up to us to hold ourselves to a higher standard than anyone else holds us to.
The process of getting better is never easy but by getting through setbacks and eliminating complacency after success is how we build a mindset that fosters continuous growth and takes advantage of our abilities. Talent with the right mindset is unstoppable!
Miles
