When most people think about go-karting, the first thing that comes to mind is the thrill of speed and intense racing around the track.
However, there’s a lot more to racing go karts than meets the eye…
Believe it or not, go karting involves a lot of mental strength and requires plenty of mental resilience to never give up.
It can really test your body both physically and mentally, which is why you can learn a lot from this fantastic sport!
Just looking at this video of the current F1 world champion, Max Verstappen during his karting career, you can really see the immense demand and difficulty that racing a go kart can have on you.
All of these traits and aspects of racing go karts can be applied outside of go karting as well, as they can help you to improve both mentally and physically!
Whether you want to improve your conscious discipline, patience, quick and intuitive thinking or you simply what to be physically healthier, racing go karts is undoubtedly a fantastic sport that You need to try out! Here is why….
If there’s one thing that’s worth taking away from racing go-karts, it’s that racing is a case of mind over matter. What do I mean by this exactly?
Well, go karting can be rather physical on your body. While the thrill of speed can be incredibly exciting, it can really push your muscles to the limit, particularly your core strength, arm muscles and particularly your neck muscles.
Personally, I’ve driven a high-specification racing kart in the past, that was capable of doing over 100km/h. After just a few laps, there was quite a bit of neck strain accumulating over time, causing my head to wobble about, especially when accelerating and going around fast corners!
Such a physical aspect of the sport can really put off people from doing it, however it can really train your mind to thrive in uncomfortable situations.
By racing go-karts, you can test your mental resilience to choosing not to race and can really test how mentally strong you are to getting out of your comfort zone.
This can be beneficial in real-life situations, because training your mind to thrive in uncomforting situations, can help you dive into more challenging, yet rewarding situations in life. This could be going for a challenging job application or speaking in front of crowds.
So if there’s one thing racing go karts can do for you, it’s to teach you the value of mind over matter!
Racing go karts can involve a lot of tension and can often be very stressful. This is especially the case if you are trying to overtake someone or defend against someone trying to overtake you.
It’s for this very reason that go karting can test how determined you are to win and do well in a race – It questions if you’re going to backdown from a battle on track or if you’re going to get your elbows out and fight back!
A lot of the time, many people who race go karts may also see themselves in last place, possibly because they may have just been unlucky to be there.
You might feel as though you’ve lost the race, but that is never the case when racing go karts! You have to realise that go karting is a very unpredictable sport. At any moment someone’s kart may breakdown, someone might make a mistake or someone might even crash!
Your finishing position is never determined by where you are at the start of the race.
it’s for this reason that go karting can teach you that “never give up never surrender” type mentality that you can carry over into day-to-day life!
If you’ve ever driven on the road and experienced road rage from other cars, whether it be shouting or beeping horns, you can understand that driving can brew impatience for some…
That can be the case in go-karting – You might be stuck behind a slow driver or someone you’re about to lap, losing time and allowing the drivers behind to catch up! As a result, it can cause frustration, leading you to desperately pass the kart ahead.
However, doing so can increase your chances of crashing out and messing up your race.
That’s why being patient is essential. Being able to play the waiting game and not coming off as impatient can really help your conscious discipline, because it teaches you not to rush into things, just so you can get it over with.
This is something many people struggle with especially in the case of work, when they want to finish as soon as possible so they can relax afterwards. But this can result in poor quality work and mistakes which make your work less credible and of value.
So have a go at racing go karts! It’s a fantastic way to teach you that patience is a virtue…
If you’ve ever watched Formula One, you’ll notice the shear number of incidents in which a driver has sworn or been in fights with other drivers, whether it be verbally on the radio or in person.
This is easily the same case with racing go karts, which is why it’s a great way to help with anger management and managing any frustrations.
Just like in day-to-day life, being productive requires a conscious discipline to work hard without your emotions having to dictate every decision you make.
This is exactly the case when it comes to racing go-karts, because if you feel annoyed, whether that be because you were crashed into or someone beat you in a race, you just have to keep your head down and keep your focus on your long-term goals – This could be to simply do better next race or assess what you may have done wrong in that race. Perhaps you were to impatient!
Racing go-karts is all about keeping your emotions in check and how to control your emotions without it impacting your racing.
This is a perfectly applicable trait in daily life, because a key aspect to success in the long-term is not letting your emotions dictate your productivity. it’s all about being able to put in the same amount of work on your bad days as you do on your good days!
This is a key recipe for opening your gateway to success in life!
Racing and motorsport in general is a very social sport, more so than you think!
You will make many friends, but you may also create some enemies on the track. At the end of the day however, it’s absolutely important that you have respect for everyone on the go karting track, no matter how you see them.
Racing go karts is a great example which helps you realise that respect is earned not given.
In many scenarios, racing go karts allows you to participate in tense battles on track for a position in a race. These instances will involve showing respect, whether that involves giving space during overtakes or not aggressively forcing them off the track and into a wall!
Things like this can really allow fellow drivers to experience one another’s talent, allowing to create a special bond between one another.
This is something that should be idealised in day-to-day life as well, because it’s important to appreciate other’s talent instead of growing jealousy or hatred.
Go karting requires a lot of quick thinking and reaction times. If you are unable to use your intuitive thinking effectively, this can often lead to some crucial mistakes being made.
Being able to think on the spot with incredibly sharp intuitive thinking is a fundamental skill of racing go karts and is once again a fantastic way to sharpen your decision-making and intuition in daily-life.
Whether it’s making business decisions at work, Planning ahead or even making on the spot decisions about what is right or wrong, decision making is essential is you want to be productive and avoid making wrong choices!
Hopefully now you have a stronger understanding of how fantastic racing go karts is for your conscious discipline and just how much value it can have in making you a mentally stronger person!
From encouraging you to develop patience and sharpen your intuitive thinking to teaching you how to grow your mental resilience and never give up, go karting can really create an all-round self-disciplined person within you.
It truly is a beautiful sport!