We often talk about sport for sports sake, or letting children play sport just for fun, but there’s one very important lesson that sport teaches us and it is the need to develop a solid work ethic to succeed in any field.

And this is what Rio Ferdinand, one of England’s best defenders, talks about here in this video. Speaking to youth at the Oxford Union Society on the importance of work ethic, Rio tells us that as players, leaders, managers and coaches, we need to be able to criticize ourselves first, before we criticize anybody else.

 

Especially important when it comes to team sports, Ferdinand talks about setting high standards for ourselves before we go about correcting others. It’s important to walk off the pitch and think about what we did right and wrong, before telling anybody else why they were wrong. More often than not, we find ourselves pointing fingers at others, blaming them for a bad pass, or a missed goal. We’re far less willing to look at how we played, think about our mistakes, and analyze ourselves.

Even if we haven’t played our best for a game, it’s important that we accept ourselves. As long as we’re training as hard, we’re always punctual, and leaving it all out on the pitch, it’s alright if we have an off day every once in a while. As long as our poor performances aren’t a result of not trying hard enough, we can accept it as a bad day, learn from it and keep working hard going forward.

For more advice from the former Manchester United centre-back, check out the video below to watch the full speech.