Carbon Fives team show great resilience

On Friday 13^th September, we entered a team into the Summer Business Fives football tournament held at the Sighthill Powerleague. Business Fives run sports tournaments throughout the UK with competing teams raising money for a variety of charities.

Carbon’s team, made up of Matthew Duncan, Andrew Hogg, Dean McFarlane, Darren McMillan and Michael Wilson, were playing for Carbon’s 2024 chosen charity, HopScotch.

HopScotch Children’s Charity is an organisation that offers free respite breaks to children and young people living in difficult circumstances in Scotland. Every year, around 400 children get the opportunity to enjoy a memorable break at the HopScotch respite centre, Ardvullin, located on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula.

On the day, we were up against it, as two call offs meant we entered the competition with just five players and no substitutes to rotate during games. So far, Friday 13^th really did seem to be living up to its reputation. Despite this, the lads put in a great shift and, although we didn’t progress far in the tournament, there were some key lessons to takeaway:

Adapt to your circumstances – Often in life, business and sport, circumstances can unexpectedly change at the last minute. We need to adapt to situational changes and focus on finding solutions, rather than focussing on the problem. For the team on the day, losing two players meant we knew we all had to put in extra effort and play more minutes than originally anticipated, but working together as a team made this more bearable.

Be the best you can be – One of our Carbon values, and the team really were living this value despite the difficult circumstances. Often when the chips are down, the focus can be negative, and heads may drop. But if we focus on doing our best rather than fearing failure, we can achieve so much more and feel greater satisfaction with our efforts.

Have fun – Sometimes we can get too caught up in life, forgetting to have fun along the way. Taking a step back, relaxing and enjoying ourselves in the present moment can lead to a much more fulfilled existence. For the Carbon Fives team, it was great to see the team’s camaraderie and spirit shining through on the day, as we battled against our opponents and even more so our fitness levels!