Don’t Live in a Bubble

April 7, 2019
When the Argentinian soccer team complained about a longer-than-normal practice, their coach set out to teach them a lesson about the real world. See what they learned, and what you can learn about getting out of your bubble.

We all live in a bubble of different limitations and a bad concept of the world. This concept falls apart when you turn your gaze to a broader reality, dare to take a different path, and distance yourself from the comfort that comes from walking the same road as everyone else.

Your limited vision makes it possible for stereotypes and prejudices to take over. You see only what you want to see, whatever is close enough to appreciate from where you’re sitting.

However, the world is so much more than what you have access to from inside your bubble. If you break out of it, what you’ll discover is far more beautiful than you can imagine.

A guy with his eyes closed.

The Argentinian national soccer team bubble

The story goes that the Argentinian national soccer team was training hard a while back to prepare for a big championship. Not much time had passed since the Albiceleste players had won the World Cup. Their coach had prepared a long practice for them that lasted nearly three hours.

The story goes that the players complained. They didn’t understand why World Cup champions needed to train if they were already the best. After listening to their complaints, the coach canceled the practice and let them go back to the hotel.

Knowing their coach, the players suspected that that wasn’t the end of the issue. They were right. The next day, they were woken up at 5 o’clock in the morning and told to get on their bus. Everyone thought that they were being punished for their bad attitude.

However, the bus drove right by their field and on to the city. It parked in front of the subway entrance and the players were told to simply observe. That was their only task. In an hour, they watched hundreds of people go down the stairs. Most of them were headed to work.

Many people still had a long trip ahead of them to get to work. Then, they had to face a long work day and another commute to get home. The coach reminded his players that people who earned bad salaries had to “train” every day for more than eight hours and that they still had to make dinner and clean when they got home.

The coach took the players out of their bubble and showed them reality. It was a call for humility. It was also reminder to those who had forgotten that as talented as they might be and as many games as they won, they were like everyone else: only human.

A woman with open arms creating a circle of leaves.

Don’t live in a bubble

You can probably relate to the Argentinian soccer team in some way. You’ve made yourself and others feel bad with unjust complaints. Instead, don’t live in a bubble. Go out into the real world and remind yourself that we’re all the same and that things could be a lot worse.

That doesn’t mean that you should quit your dreams or stop trying to be the best that you can be. Instead, it’s a reminder and a call for attention.