Embracing the Joy of Effort: Falling in Love with the Work →

In sport and in life, it’s easy to celebrate the outcomes, the wins, the goals, the highlights. But the real magic happens long before that. It’s found in the quiet moments when no one is watching. The early mornings, the missed attempts, the small improvements that only the athlete notices. That’s where character is built.

For young athletes, learning to enjoy the effort itself is a game changer. When they start to see value in the doing rather than just the result, the pressure fades and the love for the process grows. Training becomes more than repetition; it becomes discovery. Each session is a chance to find out what their body and mind can do.

As coaches and parents, our role is to nurture that mindset. We can help kids see effort as something to be proud of, not something to rush through. To remind them that persistence and curiosity matter far more than perfection.

When children learn to find joy in effort, they build resilience that lasts well beyond sport. They begin to understand that progress doesn’t always look like success, sometimes it looks like trying again when it would be easier to stop.

The joy of effort is where passion begins. It’s where confidence grows, where learning sticks, and where young athletes start to realise that the journey itself is the real reward.