I recently completed close to 2.5 years of working at Decathlon Logistics.
Being my first full-time job, Decathlon has inevitably shaped me in more ways than I probably realise. It has influenced the way I work, the way I look at people, the way I lead… and, quite unexpectedly, it has also given me a new favourite – sports.
When I first went through the Decathlon recruitment process, one thing genuinely puzzled me.
The recruitment process includes a mandatory sports round, where you are assessed through individual and team sports. As a candidate who had very little understanding of what Decathlon was all about, I remember wondering:
How can a corporate skill or job fit possibly be understood through a sports round?
Cut to today, and I think I have my answer.
There is perhaps no place where you can bring out your most natural version of yourself better than on a field – in the middle of a game.
From evening tuition to evening sports
I was always a fairly active and reasonably fit person growing up. But my relationship with sport was mostly limited to childhood playtime. Then came school, studies, evening tuitions, college, exams… and slowly, sports became something that happened less and less.
And then came Decathlon.
Here, sports wasn’t something you squeezed into your schedule after work. It was part of work. Weekly sports became a part of our working hours. And perhaps the most beautiful part was this:
“You don’t need to know how to play a sport. You just need to say yes to stepping onto the field.”
And what a stress buster that “yes” has become.
A heated meeting. A difficult conversation. Numbers that aren’t going the way you wanted. A day when your brain has been running in ten different directions.
Sometimes, all it takes is an evening game.
Forty-five minutes of running, shouting, laughing, missing easy shots, celebrating silly goals, abusing the referee – and suddenly, the mental clutter feels lighter. You come back to your desk with the same problems, but somehow, a different headspace to solve them.
The field has a funny way of introducing people
Sports have also become one of my favourite ways of building connections.
At work, I have played with people from different cultures, languages, backgrounds and age groups. You don’t necessarily need a long conversation to create a connection.
Sometimes, you just need to pass the ball.
And this learning has slowly travelled beyond work too.
A badminton game with my partner. A random walk. A late-night conversation while holding my grandmother’s hand. These moments have made me realise that you can learn so much about people when you are simply doing something together.
You see how someone reacts when they win. How they react when they lose. Whether they cheer for someone else. Whether they blame the team. Whether they keep trying after missing three times.
And, perhaps most importantly, you get to see little pieces of who they are without the formalities of everyday life.
Sports also made me unlearn perfectionism
If there is one thing sports has taught me that I didn’t expect, it is this:
Sometimes, you just have to let go of being perfect.
I remember standing in the middle of a volleyball game when a fast ball came straight towards me.
And in that split second, I wasn’t really thinking about the ball. I was thinking about everyone sitting in the cafeteria watching me.
What if I miss?
What will they think?
The ball, meanwhile, was still coming.
Over time, I started learning to silence those voices.
Not completely – I’m still a work in progress!
But enough to focus on the only thing that mattered in that moment:
The ball.
Sports has repeatedly reminded me that sometimes the fear of being judged takes up far more mental space than the actual problem itself. And when you stop looking at the audience and start looking at the game, you play a little more freely.
There is something magical about cheering for someone else
Another thing I have unexpectedly fallen in love with is cheering. There is so much joy in seeing someone else do well and being genuinely excited for them. When we score, it has never really felt like “I scored.” It is always:
“We did it!”
And on the days we lose?
We laugh, discuss what went wrong, maybe deal with the referee in the parking lot! 😄, and eventually head back to our desks with a simple thought:
What happens on the turf, stays on the turf.
The next day, we are teammates again.
Learning to play different roles
Being a beginner has also taught me something about roles and contribution.
I was often assigned man-to-man marking because, well… when you’re still figuring out the sport, apparently someone has to give you a very specific job!
Initially, I could have looked at it as being given a less glamorous role. Instead, I slowly started understanding the beauty of it. If I have one person to mark, then that person becomes my entire focus.
I don’t need to score the most goals. I just need to do my role well enough for the team to function better.
And isn’t that, in some ways, what work is about too? Not everyone has to be the person scoring the final goal. Sometimes, your contribution is making sure someone else gets the space to score theirs.
Maybe I should have played more sports
Looking back, I sometimes think:
Damn, I should’ve played more sports as a child.
But then again, better late than never. Because over these past couple of years, sports has given me much more than just a new hobby.
It has taught me about teamwork without PowerPoints.
It has taught me about leadership without designations.
It has taught me about failure without performance reviews.
And it has taught me about myself – especially the parts of me that I don’t always get to see sitting behind a laptop.
So now I have a little dilemma.
My personal blogging website has two categories:
Work Wise
and
Life & Beyond.
And here I am, with a story where sport entered my life through work… but ended up teaching me lessons about both.
So, where does this blog belong?
Work Wise?
Life & Beyond?
Or perhaps somewhere in between.
Maybe that’s exactly what sport has become for me too — a little bit of work, a lot of life, and everything in between. 🏸
