MESSAGE #975 WHAT HARD WORK WILL GET YOU
Today’s message is especially dedicated to the great Tom Jolly, sports editor of the New York Times. Happy Birthday to a true peak performer.
Many years ago on a rainy July morning in Washington Heights, New York, a 12 year-old boy was watching TV.
“Why don’t you call your friends and go out and play ball?” his dad asked.
“Dad, I’m watching TV and it’s raining out.”
Dad said, “Come over here, I want to show you something.”
From their fifth-floor apartment, they could see the local school yard.
There, in the rain, another 12 year-old boy was hitting a baseball off a makeshift batting tee.
After hitting the ball, he ran after it, teed it up, and hit it again.
This went on for over an hour.
“I guess it’s not raining on Manny,” his dad said.
“Manny” is now one of the greatest hitters of all time: Manny Ramirez!
What do you want to be – a great athlete? a great writer? a great student? a great salesperson?
What are you doing to make that happen?
Instead of “trying your best”…Do whatever it takes.
Here are the five words why most people fail:
I DON’T FEEL LIKE IT.
Thanks for reading.
MESSAGE #948 FROM THE BEATLES
There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.
Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game. It’s easy.
Nothing you can make that can’t be made.
No one you can save that can’t be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time. It’s easy.
-THE BEATLES
The Beatles are no different from you and me.
“There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done.” It’s easy, just find successful people and do what they’re doing.
John, Paul, George and Ringo had a growth mindset, but they also knew the value of hard work.
In fact, in his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about how instead of playing one hour sets, once in a while in Liverpool, The Beatles went to Hamburg and played 7-8 hour sets seven days a week! Supposedly they were terrible on stage at first, but improved by putting in the time.
Everyone wants be an overnight success, but it takes ten years to become an overnight success…or 10,000 hours, according to Gladwell.
I know what you’re thinking, 10,000 hours is a long time!
I can help make it easier:
1. Instead of focusing on 10,000 hours, focus instead on one good hour…then do it 10,000 times.
2. Enjoy the process and those 10,000 hours will fly by.
3. Remember that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
Also from Outliers…
“The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert–in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again. … No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.”
There’s no short-cut…now get to work.
What are you trying to master? Leave your comments below…
MESSAGE #799 LOOK INSIDE…AND ALL AROUND YOU
“All of the ability is already inside you.”
-Rob Gilbert, Ph.D., Professor of Sport Psychology, Montclair State University
Look inside.
Look all around you.
It’s never been easier to succeed. No longer is it about talent. It’s all about having the right strategy and putting in the work.
Look at all of the resources around you – books, DVDs, podcasts, workshops, the internet and more.
You can have your own private pitching coach. Your own private nutritionist. Your own private strength and conditioning coach.
But here’s the kicker…
You have to put in the work.
If you work hard, you will surpass those with talent that do not work hard.
I know what you’re thinking, that it’s not cool to try. But do you want to be cool or do you want to be great?
As you’re working hard, some people may call you a nerd or loser…
But later on, those same people are going to call you…
BOSS.
Thanks for reading.
Don’t forget…tomorrow, Sunday, October 4th at Yogaphoria in New Hope, PA, I will be giving a free workshop with the great Naime Jezzeny on Peak Performance for Athletes. 10am.
MESSAGE #722 FOOLS…
“Have success and there will always be fools to say that you have talent.”
-EDOUARD PAILLERON
WORK HARD.
MESSAGE #718 ASIANS ARE NOT SMART…
MESSAGE #627 DAMN YANKEES…
-sign outside the Yankees clubhouse at Legends Field in Tampa
MESSAGE #613 A BLAST FROM THE PAST…
Today’s message is especially dedicated to all the great alumni, Professional Tennis Management students, staff and guests at Ferris State University this weekend for the Annual Banquet and Workshop Weekend.





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