How to Learn to Love the Struggle

Love the struggle. This soccer mindset is one of the most difficult concepts to learn as a player, yet so worth it. Because when you truly internalize it and embody it in every part of your game, it completely changes who you are as a soccer player, and your potential becomes limitless.

So, what does it really even mean to love the struggle? We’ll break it down and let you know why this should be scrolled across your bathroom mirror in huge letters with a dry-erase marker so you can see it and remember to live it every day.

Challenge = Growth

The more difficult things you try, the more hard situations you can work through, the more you will improve at soccer, and the better, more resilient, more confident player you will become. In a nutshell, every time you overcome a challenge, you become a stronger version of yourself–both as a soccer player and as a person.

1. You can’t grow as a player if you shy away from challenging situations

Staying comfortable stunts growth. Soccer players have to put themselves into challenging environments to get better willingly. If players never struggle because they are always doing things they are comfortable with, they are not progressing or developing.

For example, it’s good to not always be the best player on your soccer team. When you have to work hard to keep up, it creates drive and motivation that you wouldn’t have had without the challenging situation.

2. You can’t grow as a player if you don’t fail

As Abby Wambach said in her famous 2018 Barnard Commencement speech, “make failure your fuel!” Setbacks and disappointments will happen to you during your soccer career. Mistakes and errors on the soccer field are also going to happen. It’s just part of the process. Realizing this and coming to terms with it early can be a game-changer. Because when you understand this, you don’t shy away from failure. Instead, you lean into it and reframe obstacles as places for improvement and growth when you understand this. 

3. You can’t grow as a player if training and games are always easy

If you never have to face hard moments on the soccer field, you won’t be able to practice working your way out of them. Simple as that. If training was always easy and you always understood everything and could do it right away, are you even improving?

When players understand that struggling with a new tactical concept at training is actually a great thing, they’ve hit personal gold in terms of mastering a growth mindset and embodying a healthy striving mentality.

4. You can’t grow as a player if you don’t create good habits for yourself to work toward your goals

Individual training can be hard. It can be hard to find the dedication and motivation to do it regularly. But, if you aren’t willing to work hard to create good discipline and self-regulation skills to buckle down and do it, you won’t improve.

Ask yourself, are you working towards the goals you set? You have to be responsible for rising to the challenge of creating discipline and routine for yourself. Nobody else will do it for you. Only you can work towards your goals and grow your game.

Setting Yourself Apart

Learning to love the struggle means understanding that with hard things comes growth. So, when challenging situations present, you can say, “Hey, I know this is going to be really hard, but I also know that I’ll be even stronger after this.”

The concept is simple but can be extremely difficult to embody. Sometimes things are just hard, and you don’t want to face them; you just want the road to be easy. The truth, though, is that this exact moment is what sets certain players apart from others. In these hard moments, can you stand up to the challenge? Can you grow in the face of adversity? The players that can embody this soccer mindset will be the ones that persevere. If you want to know how to get to the top and be elite, this soccer mindset is it. Learn to love the struggle.