We bring to you 10 inspirational life lessons from Lionel Messi. First, it’s not the type of dog in the fight, but the type of fight in the Dog.
This is the case with Lionel Messi who is unarguably one of the most famous sportsmen in the world and often considered the best football player.
He has several awards to attest to this claim including FIFA World’s Best Player award.
Lionel Messi is a 33-year-old Argentine football player who has been playing professionally since he was just a teenager.
He plays the forward position and captains both the Argentina national team and Barcelona FC, one of the richest football clubs in the world.
He was born in the city of Rosario and moved to Spain at the age of 13 where he joined the Spanish club Barcelona, and he plays there till date.
Messi has won a record six Ballon d’Or awards and a record six European Golden Shoes.
He has spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he has won a club-record 34 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League titles and six Copas del Rey.
As a prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga (440), a La Liga and European league season (50), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36) and the UEFA Champions League (8), and most assists in La Liga (177) and the Copa América (12). He has scored over 700 senior career goals for club and country.
His success did not come by luck as he worked and trained hard every day. In fact, Messi is one of the top 20 richest soccer players in the world today.
10 Success & Inspirational Life Lessons From Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi’s life is an inspiring one and here are some amazing and inspirational lessons got from him.
Be Goal-Oriented
Messi’s goal to become the best was not dented by the fact that most people’s first impression about him is just him being a dwarf backe then.
According to his youth coach, one would realize he was born different, that he was a phenomenon and that he was going to be something impressive.
His goal has always been to become the best and not even a growth deficiency would deter him from achieving his dream.
When all you see is the goal, what you speak is the goal, what you hear is the goal; though failure may pass by, you’re sure to achieve that goal much faster than not being goal-oriented.
No man is without obstacles, even coming to the world has its obstacles and competition, but finally being here is a goal already. Therefore, always work for that goal.
2nd Inspirational Life Lesson:
Be Dedicated to Your Cause
An impressive attribute about Messi is establishing himself among the world’s best players before age 20. His rigorous training and dedication to his team played vital roles in him being the world’s best football player.
According to his teammates, it hurts him badly when he loses a game and it takes him a day or two or three to get over this wall of silence.
To him, money is not a motivating factor: his motivation comes from playing the game he loves and if he wasn’t being paid to be a professional footballer, he would willingly play for nothing.
Yes, money is important and as much as possible, make money. But while making money, be dedicated to what’s bringing in the money. Most times, that money will not open some doors, it is your history of dedication that will.
Make Sacrifices
In one of the 58 motivational Lionel Messi quotes, he said; “one has to fight to reach their dream, sacrifice and work hard for it.”
Messi always wanted to play professional football, and he knew that to do so, he had to make a lot of sacrifices.
Some of the sacrifices include leaving Argentina, he left his family to start a new life. He changed his friends, his people and everything.
He left his comfort zone and sacrificed living with his family in Argentina to Brazil at a young age which eventually paid off.
Every successful man today has had to make sacrifices for their carrier at some point. Even the holy book says “If you must gain your life, you will lose it”.
Sacrifice is one of the break through to a successful carrier. Don’t be too afraid of making sacrifices and while you’re making endless sacrifices, be sure to be hardworking.
4th Inspirational Life Lessons:
Hard work is Key
He worked extremely hard and trained almost every single day to become who he is today.
He’s won a lot of awards in the past proving just how good he is, including number 1 football player in the world.
Since Messi’s debut, Barcelona won 20 major trophies and Messi managed to win Barcelona a total of 34 trophies.
He is a goal scorer, play maker, and an electrifying talent. His quick dribbling skills and elusive tricks on the ball put him in a class of his own.
As a forward or attacking midfielder, Messi is blessed with outstanding ball control and pace.
Of noteworthy is that hard work isn’t measured by how long you work but how much effort you put into the work.
The reason some people work few hours in a day and earn millions is because those few hours are nourished with immeasurable effort.
Work hard until there’s none like you. This brings us to another point on the inspirational life lessons from Messi..
Resilience
Messi’s story could have ended before it begun had Barca not taken him under its wing at an early age, as he was diagnosed at an early age with a growth hormone deficiency and as a result, his growth was stunted.
Without proper treatment, Lionel Messi was unlikely to be able to pursue his dreams, and while a local club called River Plate was interested in signing him, they were not willing to pay for his medical treatments.
This ought to have discouraged him, but further fueled his resolve to becoming a great athlete.
No injury is ever likely to faze Messi after coming through his childhood difficulties, but he has had some bad ones.
He tore a thigh in a Champions League tie against Chelsea in 2006 before breaking his foot the following season.
He was sidelined for six weeks again after tearing a thigh muscle in a football march against Celtic and left the field in tears. Yet, through it all Messi, despite all the lengthy injuries, has been and is a star.
Out there, there’s so much competition than you can imagine. Only the swift and resilience pulls through.
Never be discouraged as life has prepared some people to discourage your dream. Look inward, believe in yourself and work for the best.
6th Inspirational Life Lessons:
Give Back to Your Society
His love for humanity cannot be overemphasized and his desire to give back to society made him found his own charitable organization, the Leo Messi Foundation.
His Foundation supports access to health care, education, and sport for children. To him, being a bit famous gives him the opportunity to help people who really need it, especially children.
Through his foundation, Messi has awarded research grants, financed medical training, and invested in the development of medical centres and projects in Argentina, Spain, and elsewhere in the world.
Messi has also invested in youth football in Argentina: he financially supports Sarmiento, a football club based in the Rosario neighbourhood where he was born.
He has been UNICEF goodwill ambassador since 2010 and participated in UNICEF campaigns targeting HIV prevention, education, and the social inclusion of disabled children.
You are a product of your environment and you should make other benefit from their environment as well by creating the avenue.
Bless people and you will be blessed. I’ll tell you that’s one of the secret behind Messi’s success.
Just like you’ll see in one of the 10 inspirational life lessons from Cristiano Ronaldo, giving back to society is a great lesson.
Ronaldo was named the world most charitable sportsperson in 2015 owing to his charitable contributions to various causes.
If life has given you quite a number of opportunities, don’t squander it alone.
Team Play Builds Both You and The Team
One of the key inspirational life lessons from Lionel Messi is being a team player.
Messi is a great team player and has steered his club to success since becoming a member.
Not only does he have good assists and key passes, he is always using his phenomenal vision to keep his teammates involved.
He has great tactical intelligence, finding free spaces to move into, receiving the ball and then laying it off to a team-mate, to build attacks.
Also, if he never ever scored a goal at all, there would be enough in his play to make a showcase of assists and team play.
From being a great team player, he also gives his team the credit they deserve.
In his words, “I’m lucky to be part of a team who helps to make me look good, and they deserve as much of the credit for my success as I do for the hard work we have all put in on the training ground”.
He is a team-work specialist and has excellent team coordination skills.
There is a reason it is called “a team”, and that is collaborative and coordinated work.
Not only will this bring success to the team, the team members will be enriched with work potential and generally be successful.
And mind you, joint-success is always sweet. I am successful, you are successful. Let’s tour the world together.
8th Inspirational Life Lessons:
Taking Advantage of Situations
He has the ability of taking advantage of every mistake his opponent makes, which according to Arsene Wenger makes him the best player in the world by some distance.
According to his teammates, his role is flexible in the game: he keeps changing his position throughout the game which makes marking him difficult for the opponents and provide important key passes and assists to main striker.
Do not wait until the opportunity passes you by, Messi takes every opportunity in his games, even the slightest one.
Make good use of every opportunity that comes your way. Though, not all will yield satisfactory result, but some will, and you never can tell which one that is.
Reliability
Messi has proven his reliability to his team that even when things are not going well they have to use him.
Even if he is half lame, his presence according to his teammates on the pitch is enough to lift them and their play in general.
Whether you work alone or you work with a team of people, make yourself reliable which in the long run will make you indispensable.
No one is indispensable, they say; but make your manager think thrice before he can let you go.
Related: 10 Inspiring life lessons from Warren Buffett
Be Yourselve’s Best
Messi is considered one of the best football players of all time and the world famous professional football player.
Although, he’s always being compared to Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi does difficult things so simple. He makes everyone believe that scoring goals is simple, dribbling is simple, and finding a team mate in a crowded defense is simple.
He has been on his top of his game for last decade, where he tops the chart for most goals, most assists, most direct Free-kicks and most dribbles.
In the words of Javier Mascherano when outlining his importance to his team, “Messi is indispensable, but the rest of us are dispensable. The club is bigger than any manager, than any player except Leo“.
He broke the world record by winning the Ballons d’Or and FIFA World’s Best Player awards six times respectively.
Trust me when I know no one can be your best, we are all created with our peculiarities.
So thinking that “if I don’t achieve it, someone else will” isn’t healthy for yourself and to your society because if you do not, no one else will do like you would.
Messi is the definition of football; you also be the definition of your brand.
Inspirational Life Lessons From Lionel Messi (summary)
There you have it! 10 inspirational life lessons from Lionel Messi.
Messi is an attestation to what it means to overcome a hurdle on the way to someone’s dream. He is often referred to as, smallest boy with the biggest dream.
He is no doubt a legend who enchanted fans all over the world and often considered as one who gave football it’s true meaning.
Did you find this piece truly inspiring? Let’s know what you think in the comment box below.
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