What Separates Good Athletes from Great Athletes
Average athletes go to practice as the baseline to participate in sports. Above average athletes do extra work during the offseason to improve. Good athletes have self-motivation and use that self-motivation as the drive to achieve progressively harder goals.
Subsequently, doing those three things are enough for 99% of athletes to enjoy sports and compete at a high level.
- Consistently go to practice
- Get better by doing extra work during the offseason
- Develop the self-motivation to progressively work harder to achieve harder goals
However, for 1% of athletes being good isn’t good enough.
Great Requires Both Physical and Mental Preparation
When good isn’t good enough, having self-motivation to progressively achieve harder goals triggers something deep inside. These type of athletes stand out when you see them at competitions. They do things like:
- Maniacally step themselves through the same pre and post competition routine before and after each and every time they compete.
- Consistently showcase optimistic and positive body language that makes them just look like they will win.
- Bring a high state of emotional intelligence to high pressure situations.
- Appear to be in the zone and unbothered by their environment.
These one percenters are doing something everyone else is neglecting. While everyone else is investing in only their physical preparation, one percenters are focusing on both physical and mental preparation.
These great athletes have visions for their future that they write down and review regularly. Simultaneously, they use visualization techniques to train their minds to believe success is inevitable.
These great athletes are hardcore believers in the philosophies of the growth mindset. Therefore, they thrive when pursuing difficult challenges and use failure to propel their growth.
These great athletes spend more time thinking and planning their schedules and routines than training. They know that there is no right way to do the wrong thing. What’s more, they understand that it’s not about working smarter, and it’s not about working harder. They know the secret to success is working smarter and harder.
Everyone knows you can’t be great without the physical tools you need to be an elite athlete. However, it’s a fact that being a physical specimen is not enough. If you want to be great you have to be mentally sharp, psychologically savvy, and use fanatical focus to train your mind.