I moved 4,000 miles away to play professional basketball. As a new resident in Lima, Peru, this move is the culmination of a goal I had not reached before. I am incredibly thankful and excited about this opportunity. It is also a powerful homecoming: I am Peruvian-American, and my mother played both basketball and volleyball for the Peruvian national team. And both my mom and dad played for the club I am playing for now: Regatas Lima!
Not that leaving home is entirely new to me, as I have lived in Kansas, New Hampshire, New York, Chicago, and now Lima in the past decade. But with it, every new move comes with its own challenges and opportunities. I have been blessed to have the opportunity to do so.
It’s not exactly easy to simply drop everything and move without the help of others, including the support of my family and the assistance of those with open arms at each destination I have gone to. While I have traveled internationally for basketball competition and for leisure in the past, playing basketball professionally is something I had not done to this point.
This new life in a league where Spanish is the default language has, by necessity, become an opportunity to challenge myself in not just basketball, but also Spanish. It is the environment of playing pro basketball for Regatas that has created a powerful opportunity for basketball, personal and linguistic growth.
The Limits of Language as Thought
Every single day, I wake up at Regatas, and during and in-between training, I try to speak in Spanish as much as I can. And every single day, there are phrases and grammar which I do not know.
One time, I forgot how to say “today,” so I said “el dia que es hoy” (the day that is today). When I then heard a person saying “hoy,” I recognized the word from a memory of a Spanish class in elementary school.
(Side note: Every time you forget and recall, your memory gets stronger—which gives me confidence to keep going!)
While I sometimes have lapses in memory, as my Spanish is tested more than ever, I also encounter new words I learn on the fly. For example, I learned that “avena” is a word for oatmeal from my teammate Gonzalo today! When communicating, I oftentimes use the words I already know to create the sentence I am thinking of, creating the meaning of words I do not yet know in Spanish.
But here is the thing: unless I pull out a dictionary or translation on the internet, I can only draw on words I already know. Words I do not yet know, which have meanings I do not yet appreciate, are unable to help me color my world and express meaning to others. And if I do not understand a word, I can infer its meaning via context clues, or at least whittle down what I expect the meaning to be. And the friction required to learn something, which is forfeited when simply looking up every sentence with Google Translate or Chat GPT, kills the learning process. So these tools have clear benefits for immediate information, but real limitations when we become too dependent. It is harder to remember a word you have only recited from your phone, rather than worked with more deeply.
My firsthand experience working to learn and improve my Spanish has strengthened my belief in the value of expanding one’s repository of words. Learning new words fuels exponential growth in your ability to express yourself. Since each new word can combine with all the others, it exponentially increases the possibilities of expression. You can see this firsthand more readily when you are a beginner in a language, with fewer words to draw from, rather than speaking in a language you have used your entire life. Learning the words "la playa" in a beginner Spanish class dramatically expands what you are talk about--especially when you only know a few words.
The beauty of language is its ability to share both the world as we know it, and the worlds we imagine for ourselves and the future. Speaking allows for the painting of scenes which others can envision, creating mutual understanding. And mutual understanding is at the essence of leadership, which depends upon creating a shared vision.
But here’s the catch: How we describe the world, and imagine future worlds, is directly limited by the extent of our language. When we have less words to use, we can say less, and understand less about what others are saying. If speaking with others is painting a canvas, a limited vocabulary is like having fewer paint tubes to use.
Words are essential to mental organization and the formation of mental groupings, or “schemas.” Schemas are themes/groups which allow for easier communication. When you say “basketball gym”, I envision other related things, such as a hoop, a court, and some people shooting hoops (without having to describe those things). This schema makes it easy for me and you to understand what we are talking about. While my schema and your schema can differ, I can clarify that I am envisioning a certain type of basketball court (i.e. an old one with cracked wood flooring) to allow you to better envision what I am talking about. And if you don’t understand, you can ask a question, and I can explain. Schemas make it easier for us to understand each other with less effort, but require prior knowledge from all parties in a conversation.
Consistency: The Engine of Self-Reinvention
The challenge of being in a new environment is that it often forces you to update these schemas. Consider the schema for a birthday party—it includes birthday cake, a festive attitude, and candles. If you attended a birthday party including a piñata being broken and had not had this happen at a birthday party you attended previously, you would experience a level of dissonance (a contrast between expectations and reality). The contradiction would be the following: I didn’t expect a piñata at a birthday party, but this one did.
Dealing with this is a process requires change. You can either dismiss the thought, by developing a new thought that counters it: that was an anomaly. Or you can update your beliefs: birthday parties can have piñatas. Or you can do a combination of the two: they can have piñatas, but I think that they are only piñatas at some parties.
The same situation can lead to very different reactions for different people.
We can reinforce irrational or rational beliefs, which is why contradictory information isn’t always effective at changing people’s minds. In fact, if you tell someone something contradictory to their beliefs, and they defend their existing belief, they might even create more supporting beliefs in the process of responding to you.
This process of constant re-evaluation and adaptation connects to a fundamental human drive: we want our thoughts, words, and actions to align. If I say that I am a professional painter, but never paint, then I am not being consistent between my thoughts and actions. This is rooted in self-consistency theory. When our actions and beliefs do not align, we feel discomfort which motivates us to change our beliefs, or our actions. This restores our feeling of consistency between our words, actions, and thoughts/self-image. Most of the time, we are compelled to continue with our current thoughts and actions when they do not cause mental friction or trouble.
However, this consistency drive can be a powerful force for the negative if we are in an unproductive environment; For instance, one where people see us as things we no longer want to be—if our identity is tied to outdated habits or beliefs. The opportunity to leave a situation in which you weren’t seen for who you know you can be is oftentimes the most powerful force to propel someone forward.
The beauty of a new situation is that you are not around people who know your former self, and you are not in the environment in which certain habits may have become reinforced. This allows you to be seen for where you are at in the moment. New beginnings are great opportunities to set trajectories. It is also about a new environment, where you can be challenged and become a better version of yourself, by being somewhere where you can be seen for where you are at now, not for where you were long before. You can begin a new path with new habits, and people who don’t know who you were 5 years ago, will see you for who you are now. This is helpful, as we are always developing, growing and changing as individuals.
An outdated model of oneself, or an outdated model of others, does not help us be the best we can be, for ourselves and for others.
This move to Peru, to play basketball for Regatas, has been an incredible opportunity that I am so thankful for. And while I have been here, it has made me reflect a lot about my past, where I am at, and my future. And it has allowed me to become a beginner in some things, which is a blessing in itself. Being somewhere new where I can learn, challenge my expectations, and be outside my comfort zone is an incredible opportunity. And this is all the while feeling supported, uplifted and appreciated by my family, teammates, coaches and the Regatas community.
I would love to learn from your experiences as you read this, so feel free to DM me on LinkedIn with comments, thoughts, etc., or to comment directly to this article.
I’ll leave with this:
What environments are keeping you from stepping into the person you know you can be?
How can you make public commitments, communicated to people you trust, to become the person you desire to become, by leverage the social pressure and uplifting that comes from caring accountability and our desire to be consistent between our words and actions?
And how can you find ways to expand your language, which will further improve your ability to express your internal world and understand the world as others see it?
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