“The only thing more important than motivation is discipline.” – Luol Deng

Basketball is a game of consistency. Every time you step foot on the court, is a culmination of all of the practice, training and work you’ve put in over your life. You can’t fake it and you can’t cheat it. Real talent shows up and plays at a high level every time.

To reach that level, it takes discipline where you can not run your day based on motivation.

Motivation is a fleeting, petty emotion. A song or a video might get you hyped and on level 10. A bad day, sleepless night or traffic might take your motivation level to zero. But regardless of your motivation level, if your game starts at 7:30 it starts at 7:30 and you have to be ready to dominate. And if you’re not ready, it’ll show. No make up tests or last minute prep will get you there.

If you really think about it, motivation is a childish emotion, completely dependent on circumstance and not reality. Discipline however is a professional, mature way to approach life and what you pursue. Discipline pushes you past whether or not you feel like doing something and into the land of getting it done. Circumstances don’t affect discipline and discipline always trumps excuses.

Discipline develops talent. Otherwise talent never reaches its full potential. I’ve trained thousands of high level athletes and every single time the ones that put in real, hard, optimal work daily is what separates out the pretenders from the top. And there isn’t a lot of space at the top.

It’s not a decision you make right now to achieve greatness, it’s a conscious decision you make every damn day. Choose wisely.

#STAYREADY


Article Tags: , ,