Caribbean broadcaster Alex Jordan has argued that young people need opportunities to experience nervousness, discomfort, winning and losing as part of preparing themselves for life.
During an appearance on the Corey Shepherd Podcast, Jordan reflected on lessons she learned through competitive sport from an early age.
She said feelings of anxiety and nervousness can be a natural part of challenging experiences and argued that people must learn how to work through those feelings.
Jordan said sport can provide young people with opportunities to experience pressure, setbacks and eventual small victories.
She connected the lesson to her own philosophy about golf, describing it as a game that reflects life because trouble is inevitable and the important question becomes how a person reacts to it.
Jordan’s father encouraged his children to compete in sport not simply to win, she explained, but to learn how to lose, suffer setbacks, recover and accept responsibility within a team.
Jordan competed in swimming, squash and golf at junior national level for Barbados.
She said those experiences helped establish a broader attitude that would later become important throughout a career in which she repeatedly entered professional situations without feeling completely comfortable or prepared.
