If you only work on something when you’re motivated, you’ll never achieve outstanding results. That’s what separates professionals from amateurs. Professionals deliberately practice their craft daily. They make sure that they eat, sleep, and train for optimum performance. They’ll break down film/recordings to see where they are weak or where there is an opportunity due to an opponent’s weakness, then they try to improve or exploit that weakness.
To become truly great at something, you have to practice…a lot. You can’t just do something once and then expect to become an expert. It takes studying and experience. But if you depend solely on your motivation to do the necessary work, you will never become truly elite in your field. Motivation comes and goes. You can have it for stretches, but when things start becoming difficult, motivation is often the first thing to go.
Muhammad Ali is quoted as saying, “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” He knew the importance of training – of doing what he didn’t want to do so he could get to the next level. Often, it is what we are willing to do that others aren’t that being us success. Are you willing to sacrifice in the short term to get the long term results you want?
So the questions are: what do you need to be doing to bring you the success you desire? Are you deliberately training, living purposefully, and working as hard as you can? Or are you relying on motivation to get you by? Take some time today to think about your goals and figure out what you need to be doing habitually to get you there.