Inspiration

Your performance as an athlete stems from the very basic principle of practice.  If you practice hard and wisely, your physical performance will follow.  The question becomes, how do you stay motivated?  In steps the mental component of performance.  They say “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.”  All athletes have been there, trying hard and hitting that damn “wall.”  When I hit my wall, hesitations pop up in my mind like “why bother pushing this hard?”  Sometimes that question wins me over and I (in retrospect) sadly give up.  Other times I end up thinking briefly about what I actually want to accomplish and how much it means to me, rather, how much it means about me.  I think of the things that inspire me and that gives me great strength to push forward.

We’ve all felt like this I’m sure.

I recently just happened to watch a few scenes from a documentary about Joe Namath.  A little bit about me, I don’t know but perhaps 5 things about football as a game and certainly don’t know my history of the sport but this documentary painted this man in a way that I found inspirational.  The way they portrayed him was a man of great personal confidence and resolve, honor as a sportsman, and humility as a person.  Whether that is actually accurate is always up for debate, but those qualities are things that I strongly value in myself.

Thinking of those values really fires me up and when I’m on, I am ON.  Have you ever had that feeling that you were invincible or couldn’t get tired now matter how painful or grueling the event was?  Thinking about things that inspire me puts me in that state of mind.

So, if you are hitting that wall or about to start an event, take a moment to think about something that really drives you to succeed.  I’m sure you’ll be amazed by just how little can phase you in your pursuits.