Former College Athletes Struggling to Find Purpose

Purpose is something that we all strive for in our daily lives. Some find it in family, jobs, or hobbies, but others find it in sports.

Well, that was me. And I'm sure many others who have suffered the pitfalls of finding purpose in a "game" only to graduate and realize that when the bright light, cameras, and fans go away, your left with a gaping hole in what you believe about yourself.

Welcome to my world. I grew up in a basketball household where I quickly fell in love with the game and made it my sole identity. Now, I won't bore you with every detail I had in my childhood, but the premise of this flashback is to highlight the key factors of my self-identity being tied to a game.

I was a start in high school and would often wake up to my name in the papers, and college recruiters calling my phone. What a rush. I quickly amassed full -ride scholarships and interests from major Division 1 schools such as Dartmouth and Army West Point which gave my name a buzz in the state in which I played.

I ended up playing 4 years of college basketball at a level I was happy with. Until the year came when I had to hang up my shoes, hand in my jersey, and walk off the court for the last time. Now, something interesting about this story is that my love for the game faded away each year I played collegiate basketball, but one thing that never faded was my love for attention.

It sounds very egotistical I know, and maybe it was. But when I graduated college and set out in the job field, I longed for some time to have that attention again. I came to the realization that while I had originally put my identity into basketball, it shifted towards praise, cheering, fans, and all eyes on me. I had put my identity into a sub-niche of what the sport had done for me.

Maybe I am alone in these thoughts, but maybe not. Big-time college athletes who were once the stars on campus, praised to be almost god-like, are now working a desk job crunching numbers. Or something of the sort. It's a difficult transition, to say the least. Give some a pedestal of that nature and have it ripped away. Many times this leads to a loss of purpose or a "what now" feeling.

While I am no therapist or master in the arts of finding purpose, I have gravitated towards one thing that I have found joy in. Creating and building. Whether it be my next business idea, working on my company, or trying to improve and strengthen my body, I have become obsessed with the idea of becoming the best version of myself so I can inspire others to do the same.

This is my new purpose, and maybe it is different than somebody else's, all I know is that athletes, especially collegiate athletes have a certain "dog" in them that others don't see. And that doesn't go away, nor should it.

Carry that into whatever job you are going towards, or business you want to start after your sports dreams are over, and work towards finding what brings you joy every single day. That will lead you to your purpose.

So, if you are a former college athlete struggling to make your way through this new adult life, just know that you are not alone, and there is much more out there for you to dominate. Your story, like mine, is not finished. So go find your next point to score, the next one might just be your best.