“Welcome to the rest of your life… ”

Inside the book and game of CareerBall: "...and welcome, I might add, to one of the most critical challenges facing most competitive athletes".

It’s a known fact that many competitive athletes are not well prepared for the transitional challenges that face them as they move from playing on a team to the highly competitive work world. But I have worked with thousands of competitive athletes over the years, and the one thing that stands out in almost every athlete I’ve met is that athletes, in general, are very talented men and women capable of achieving any goal they set their mind towards.

While it sounds scary, the transition to the work world after an exciting career of competitive athletics should (and will) be one of the most enjoyable periods in your life. Most importantly of all, most of you will find jobs and enjoy plentiful careers that build on your positive attitudes, strengths, and values and utilize many of the skills that helped form you into a successful athlete in the first place.

Whether or not your transition from athlete-to-career will be stressful will depend on a couple of important factors:

• First, how do you perceive the transition? For example, do you see this termination as a beginning with exciting new challenges and opportunities to be enjoyed, or do you view it in your sports career as a significant loss, leaving you devastated, disoriented, and without direction or meaning in your life?

• Second, what is your identification with the athlete role? Student-athletes who identify strongly with multiple roles (such as those of athlete, student, family member, and significant other) are more likely to cope effectively with the transition than those who see themselves solely as an athlete.

Tunnel Vision Syndrome

Inside the book and game of CareerBall: Here's the bitch of it in a nutshell: the transition that men and women competitive athletes must make from a lifetime of sports to the working world does not come as easily as hitting a ball, running a play, or achieving your best time. As an athlete, this difficult transition can be the biggest emotional and psychological challenge that you will face in your lifetime—one for which you might oftentimes be unprepared, and one in which there is little wise advice and counsel from that ever-present “coach” you’ve had by your side since the Pee Wee leagues.

A “tunnel vision syndrome” affects all highly competitive athletes to varying degrees at some stage of their lives. Parents can see it, high school coaches and college athletic administrators can see it, professional sports agents and general managers see it… and, yes, hiring managers see it at companies large and small all across America. Unfortunately, athletes who are unaware that they suffer from tunnel vision spend way too much time thinking only about sports (training, competition, etc.) and, as a result, young athletes are left ill-prepared for the balanced perspective required of “real world” career opportunities. Some call this behavior crazy or blind, some call it self-centered, and some call it selfish. I call it “tunnel vision.” But no matter what you call it, the effect of this kind of one-track thinking is the same… and you have to snap out of it!

Welcome to CareerBall

CareerBall a good game to learn—fun, exciting, fast-paced, high-scoring, competitive… and the best part? You’re never too young to learn it! CareerBall is what you learn to play after you’ve mastered competitive baseball, football, or basketball (and any sport that has a ball, a court, a field, a pool, or even a coach), but long before you get to play the game called PayCheckBall—the game that pays the bills, fuels the car, stocks the refrigerator, and lets you move out of your parents’ house.

The good news/bad news part of this blog and my book, CareerBall, is pretty simple: Being a competitive athlete most of your life thus far has provided you with a slew of valuable ”soft skills” that are easily transferred to the workplace, and you’re about to learn what it takes to make the most of this transition. But, sadly, being a highly competitive athlete has also left you somewhat unprepared, or “behind-the-curve” in your job search and career prep skills.

Follow this blog and almost every day you will get a small dose of insight into what makes up an athlete's DNA, learn some of the steps you can take improve your own persoanl career development, and learn about the latest employment trends emerging in this new marketplace. Let's pay some CareerBall!

Out of many, we are one!

Inside the book and game of CareerBall: At any given time, over 400,000 young men and women actively participate in collegiate athletics, or at the elite international or professional level in the United States. Millions more are active in high school sports. Each of these athletes will ultimately make the transition from the structured life of high school, college, and competitive athletics to jobs and careers that will fulfill their life’s potential. For many, this transitional period will be navigated gracefully and without incident; for many others it will be a confusing and frustrating experience.

CareerBall is dedicated to all the competitive athletes, their parents, coaches and administrators that are committed to understanding and achieving a life-balance between succeeding in athletics and successfully preparing for life after sports.