After 16 years as an athlete, being an NCAA All-American, making an Olympic team, and working around plenty of world-class athletes, I jotted down the seven things that I noticed all successful athletes around me did on their way to accomplish their athletic goals. If you get these seven down and you will be well on your way to achieving whatever it is that you want as an athlete but also in life. The only thing worse than not accomplishing your athletic goals is not having any clue what it even takes to do so.
Work Your Imagination
The imagination is something that is just not spoken about enough. As we get to high school age, we are brainwashed into thinking that creativity is for little kids. Imagination is for anyone who wants to become something more.
Every great idea starts in mind. Never forget that!
The mind is powerful, and no idea can ever come to life without passing through it first. It does not matter if it is building a business or wanting to be a pro athlete one day, it all starts with a thought. It begins with a dream, a pure idea in the mind that maybe it can be done.
Using your imagination is a part of the success story. I noticed that successful athletes dream and they have a vision for there life will be in 5 to 10 years. They don’t just wake up and hope things work out. They have a clear picture that they write down, and they never stop imagining what they want.
It is this very imagination that allows them to be great. Where most are only taking from life what they can see. These successful athletes build their life on a vision that no one can see but them.
Have a Definitive Purpose
Having an ultimate purpose is textbook Napoleon Hill who is the originator of “Self-Help.” He states over and over again in his books that you have to know exactly what you want at all times.
When I looked back on my high school career, and I see how my life played out, I asked myself how my life turned out different than some others? Again, I looked at who else was successful with what they did after high school, and there was a common denominator. The common theme was that the successes knew what they wanted.
Attending school was not something I had to do. I went to college and worked my butt off because I wanted a scholarship so I could better my life. I did not show up at practice because my parents wanted me to. Using every last piece of my talent was my purpose every day.
You must concentrate on finding your daily and life goal is a must.
Increase Your Self Control
You have to increase your self-control because the higher you climb, the more distractions that get thrown at you. For example, when you are in high school you don’t need as much self-control because your parents are there to help make up for your lack of it. All a sudden, you head of to college and your parents are not there anymore.
You don’t have a curfew; you can have guests over anytime, no one is there to tell you what to eat and before you know it your whole life is spiraling out of control. Former Navy Seal coined the term “Discipline Equals Freedom,” and I love the truth in the statement.
When you give someone the freedom to do whatever they want, it ends up becoming a prison. You become enslaved to your health because you eat crap, you become confined to being tired because of poor sleeping habits. The only way to get real freedom is to be disciplined with it.
Great athletes have amazing self-control. They know what they want, and they understand what it will require to get it. They see their diets must be clean, so when people offer them junk, they have the self-control to say no. It is that simple! Greatness is always focused on importance, not the easy way out!
Be More Patient
Patience is one of the hardest parts of everything in this article. The reality is that you have to pay your dues and a lot of times it takes time to cash that check. We rarely see the fruits of our labor right away.
Think of it like planting a tree. Do you play a tree and get to use it for shade the next day? No way! A lot of times you plant a tree, and it is not suitable for shade for decades. Success as an athlete can take a decade to come to life. Are you willing to show up for a decade?
Patience is the difference maker because it eliminates so many people who have a shot. Everyone wants to succeed, but only the ones who can stick with it have a real chance. Most people won’t do that.
When I looked around at successful athletes around me, they all had stories of how they had been patient. How they kept working through injuries, or how they kept trying to get an agent or a tryout with that team. They just kept knocking on doors until someone answered.
Be More Persistent
Persistence is closely tied to being patient. You need to be able to wait for your time to strike, but no one said you should not be urgent because life is short. Remembering that life is short is what will keep you persistent.
Persistence is the part that wants it to happen now. It is the piece of you that shows up daily and is never scared to hear no! Persistence and patience are the perfect sidekicks. Together they can accomplish anything.
When Hall of Fame NFL quarterback Kurt Warner worked at a grocery store and continued to train for football, that was persistence at its finest. The guy went from Arena to NFL bench warmer, Super Bowl champion, to the Hall of Fame all because he was persistent.
You need to be more persistent in life if you want to succeed. Be patiently urgent for everything that you do.
Find Your Self-Confidence
I think most find this one to be a given. Athletes are known to be very confident in themselves. This confidence I am speaking of is real authentic confidence. Many people talk and act convinced today, but in reality, they are not confident. They are just putting up a front.
Real confidence comes from action. Someone who just talks can never be confident because they even know that their words are just words. Faith comes from taking massive action. When someone believes in themselves, it often comes from a place of enormous preparation as well. Both of those causes of confidence require work.
Successful athletes are always on top of their preparation. They are the first person to practice and the last to leave. They help other people with their task to make sure the team is successful. If you want to accomplish your athletic goals, don’t worry about winning. Put all your focus on being the most prepared person in the game. If you do that the wins will follow.
Accurate Thought
Last but not least, having accurate though is the hardest on the list by far. Precise thought stems from the ability to see things for what they are. While also being able to think clearly about what to do about it. When you don’t believe so accurately, you rarely accomplish your goals because you can’t see things for what they are. If you can’t look at your life for what it is you can build an accurate map forward.
If you were going from Florida to Toronto, you would need to know that you’re in Florida to get accurate directions. Say you were actually in Texas, but you thought you were in Florida? It would be a way to get to Toronto.
When you are inaccurate with your thought, this happens all of the time. You may think you are better than you are or not be able to pick out your weak points. You can’t build an accurate map to your goals because you don’t know where you are.
It is imperative that you look in the mirror and see yourself for who you are. Successful athletes are incredible at this! They know what went wrong, they take ownership of it, and they build a map to get better.
They see they are at the top of the game, but they still recognize they have holes in their game and they work at it!
So What?
Accomplishing your athletic goals requires you master these seven areas. It all starts with having the imagination of what your life can be, then you decide on a single purpose. Then you have to be patient and persistent at the same time and have the self-control to stay in line with your mission. Then lastly you need self-confidence through preparation, but you can only prepare with accurate thought.
You nail these seven things down, and success will be yours!
KHO Health was acquired by was acquire by 9INE POINT in the summer of 2019 and is now referred to as 9INE POINT Health.
