The Happy Wrestler vs. The Satisfied Wrestler
One of my favorite semantic arguments is happiness vs. satisfaction. Today I’m going to use this semantic nuance to make a point about putting youth wrestlers in the right environment for their personality type.
Happy Wrestlers
Happy wrestlers are those who are driven by being on a team with friends. They love going to practice because no matter how hard practice is, going through the grind with their buddies makes it fun. On the other hand, if they don’t have friends on the team with them, practice is the pits.
Happy wrestlers have a connection with their coach beyond the mat. They know their coach cares about them as a person and treats them with respect. They don’t mind if the coach yells once in a while when they know the coach cares.
Happy wrestlers have parents who encourage them, but don’t push them. They know their parents will love them the same way whether or not they win or lose and even if they decide to quit wrestling their parents will support them.
Satisfied Wrestlers
Satisfied wrestlers need to define a list of goals before the start of each season and before the offseason. Their motivation comes through fearlessly pursuing difficult goals and it’s rare that they don’t achieve each one. They want a team driven by this pursuit of goals and prefer to have teammates willing to do extra work to achieve these goals.
Satisfied wrestlers love constructive feedback, even negative feedback from their coaches. They use this feedback to drive their ambitions and push themselves to be better than yesterday. They could care less about the pleasantries between teammates and coaches. Instead, they want to get the job done. Their motto is less talk and more work.
Satisfied wrestlers don’t let their parents push them, because they’re too busy pushing their parents. The only help they need from their parents is to help them stay in balance and not neglect other areas in their life off the mat that could prevent them from reaching their ultimate goal.
Both Types of Wrestlers Can Have Success
The moral of the story is that both types of wrestlers can and do win. Both types of wrestlers can and do lose as well. Furthermore, both types of wrestlers need the right environment tailored to their personality type.
If you put a wrestler who is driven by happiness in the environment of a wrestler who is driven by satisfaction, he or she will be unhappy. If you put a wrestler who is driven by satisfaction in the environment of a wrestler who is driven by happiness, he or she will be unsatisfied.
Personalities matter, and the environment that nurtures those personalities matters even more.