This week we feature Bruce Djite in our match day programme, ADLUNITE. To read the full piece, make sure you get a copy at #ADLvSYD!
Work hard, play hard
How do you define ‘hard work’?
Is it continual pressure, a strive for achievement that strains every ounce of mental capacity to the point when your pulse pounds repeatedly at your temples? Or, is it when physical exertion and activity reaches its ultimate climax, your lungs bordering collapse and body numb with agony?
Because to each individual it must be different. One’s notion of hard work is essentially based on a solitary conclusion from personal experience, but to someone else, that same effort could be viewed as inadequate.
Therefore, it must be a subjective notion – based on individuality and the levels at which one can push his/her-self?
So, perhaps defining it isn’t possible. But some sort of reward should accompany its presence, or at least it encourages such feelings of entitlement.
At the very least, satisfaction should be achieved and you should be able to look back on your labour – mental, physical, or both – proud of your accomplishments.
“With anything in my life, I’m never satisfied,” Bruce Djite chimes in. “I want to better everything; I want to play better, I want to be a better person, and I demand the same from everyone else.”
He’s his own worst critic, especially when it comes to his football.
“It’s a gift and a curse because I’m never happy with achievements and I’m always searching for the next best thing,” he explains.
“It makes it hard to enjoy any of the good moments because you’re always picking out the negative things, but it’s gotten me where I am today.
“That doesn’t mean that I feel I never play well. Against Brisbane I scored two goals and the whole team did play well, but we still conceded a goal, for example.
“Then it’s thoughts of: ‘Could I have made that pass?’ ‘Could I have made that run quicker?’. I was happy with the game, but the moment that final whistle goes, the game is in the past.
“Then you look to the following week and analyse how you can improve for the next game. It doesn’t end.”
Like he said, Djite “demands” what he exudes. He will not accept anything less from himself, so why others?
We’re nine matches undefeated, though, four straight wins, five straight at home, catapulting ourselves up the table after a horrid start…
His response: “But what about ten undefeated? Five straight wins? Six at home? We know our position in the league and at the end of the day the table doesn’t lie.”
The full version of this feature is available exclusively in the ADLUNITE match day programme available at the game between Adelaide United and Sydney FC.
Adelaide United will face Sydney FC in Round 18 of the Hyundai A-League 2015/16 season on Friday, 5 February at Coopers Stadium. Kick-off is at 7.10pm ACDT.
