German : gehören - Da gehört viel ... dazu

In this article, I am going to write a important meaning of "gehören" in german, which is hard to find the "correct interpretation" in English even on Google but actually it is often used in Germany.
Let's have a look, off we go!

German Text

This is quoted from a man who got the highest score in a certain region on the Germany exam for getting in the University. He got an interview from a local media and this is his thoughts regarding to what he is feeling after.

Da gehört viel Disziplin dazu. Aber für mich war das Wichtigste eigentlich die Neugier. Und ein bisschen Glück gehört auch dazu.
Ich war eigentlich jeden Tag auf dem Platz. Entweder als Spieler oder als Trainer. Ich finde, da kann man einfach mega viel mitnehmen: Im Team zusammenarbeiten, sich anstrengen, sich verbessern, aber auch mit Rückschlägen umgehen.

English Translation

It requires a lot of discipline. But the most important thing for me was the curiosity. And a bit of luck as well.
I was actually on the pitch every day. Either as a player or as a coach. I think you can take a lot from it: working together as a team, making an effort, improving, but also dealing with setbacks.

What was the "gehören"?

The verb "gehören" is often connected with the dative (mir, dir, ihm, ihr, uns, euch, ihnen, Ihnen) and with the words related with people, which is conjugated in dative form as well (Herr..., der Mädchen).
It means something "belongs to" someone.
So it's gonna be perfect when you would say something like "It's mine"!

gehören

You can figure out that it is defined as "someone's" written as "jemandes Besitz, jemandes Eigentum sein".
However, you can also add the preposition "zu" with the verb "gehören", which can be translated like "part of" or "belonging to".
But just let you know that there might be slightly a difference depending on the context, so I recommend you should have grab some images so you can imagine how the verb works!

However, both of two translations don't seem to be the best one for the sentence on the top.
Yes, it's a special case.
I asked some German friends and got the answers like below.
A: Maybe when something sounds challenging, you can think of the “gehören” context of one with a requirement
B: You could also translate it as “~ is important!”.

So let's say this "gehören" is used when you are desperately trying to do something, when something is required, or when something is absolutely necessary or important!
So you can imagine like there's something that is always connected with the things you should get over or overcome as a challenge so you can achieve the goal.
If I break down "dazu" partially, "da" means "it" and "zu" means "to" in general, which means that you can translate like "A lot of discipline are part of it" or "A lot of discipline belong to it". In this case "it" is something like a goal that you are trying to achieve.

I'd be really glad if I could you understand Germany better!
Germany is not my mother language but I really love it!
So I just wanted to share some important tips that you can comprehend Germany much better even in the conversation!
See you in the next article!