Why Basketball Is Important To Me

I stopped playing basketball frequently after my 6th year in the elementary school. At that time, I did not take basketball seriously and only played for fun. When I came to Portland earlier this spring, I made new friends and they asked me to join them and play basketball together. It has been a long time since my last basketball game then. As a result, my skills have dropped and did not play as well as I used to be while I was in elementary school. I was pretty disappointed with myself. However, my friends gave me a lot of support and told me that I had the potential to become very good in basketball. They praised me that even though my shooting were not accurate, I was quick at dribbling and knew how to find an open spot. They also told
me that I was quite tall and had long hands and it is an advantage in basketball to have those physical attributes.
After listening to their praises, I felt encouraged to improve my basketball skills. My friend’s appraisal gave me the motivation and determination to become a better basketball player. Since then, I had been playing basketball with them quite frequently and my skills have improved quite considerably.

2) While playing basketball with my friends, I always try to compare myself with them. I always try to see my own strength and skills through them. “Were they playing better than me?” or “Was I the best among the group?” These questions always come to mind during and after the game. Ialways compare myself with my friends and try to improve my game so that I can be better than them. I think that by looking at them playing so well in their basketball games, they gave me a goal to pursue and made me motivated to practice my basketball skills.

3) Based on my “Self-Description Inventory” worksheet, I had a score of 71 out of a range
between
14 and 98. The worksheet shows that I am quite independent as person. If I calculated using math, I am in the 67th percentile of the score range. In my opinion, this score is quite shocking as I had always thought that I was an interdependent person who has always relied on my parents and elder brother to take care of me. I am quite a lazy person and a lazy person is usually interdependent. After much thought, I believe that the fact I was sent here to study has made me grow as a person. Maybe by coming here, I’ve learnt to be more independent as I am forced to take care of myself.
4) My actual self is a shy person, while my ideal self is a confident person with self-esteem.
Depending on my mood during the situation itself, I either use the “change their behavior” or the “blunt your self-awareness” strategy. If I was feeling rather ignorant about being embarrassed and was determined to try and improve myself, I would use the “change their behavior” method. I would just forget about my discouraging past and try to force myself to be confident. I always keep telling myself to change my own behavior and that even if anything goes wrong, everything would be alright. However, if
I was being lazy, I would use the “blunt your awareness” strategy and try to avoid the situation itself. I would tell myself that I should not embarrass myself and that it’s not worth it to be in such a situation.
As a result, I would run away and try my best to avoid situations that increase my self-awareness.
5) I would try to bring my self-concept to be more credible to my self-awareness. In this way, I can be motivated to improve myself step by step instead of being discouraged by looking at how far away
I am from my actual self-concept. From each failure, I can try analyze to see how I can improve myself the next time, if the same situation happens again.