Quotes are often meaningless without context or can even justify perspectives opposed to their original intention. And I seldom resort to their use to avoid confusion. However, the sense of these 6 quotes about motivation and progress is to show that they are uniquely personal missions.
These quotes present the value in understanding that [finding] motivation is a personal endeavour and that progress is the ultimate goal of training.
And yes, they are all from gymnasts.
The Quotes
1) It’s not about medals
“Being great at your sport has nothing to do with trophies or awards. It has everything to do with the decision to relentlessly chase more progress every day.”
– Shawn Johnson
I constantly remind my athletes that medals and awards are secondary to their mindset and performance. It is rear to find me at award ceremonies during the competitive season.
Celebrating their efforts and attitudes is much more enjoyable.
2) Consistency
“One of the things about my sport that’s important is consistency – being able to do your routines consistently and training consistently. If you change it… to make everything more intense because the Olympics is coming up, you tend to put too much pressure on your mind and your body.”
-Jonathan Horton
Consistent proper practice is how you become a champion.
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3) How you train matters
“I don’t think my natural talent is much different to the other gymnasts. It is a matter of how I train and how I think about my training. I also give a lot of thought to my routines.”
– Kohei Uchimura
Another of my preferred maxims is that a good work ethic supersedes natural talent any day.
4) Learning from adversity
“I learned to take those experiences that were difficult in my life and in the adversity that I had overcome to use it for a positive change.”
– Dominique Moceanu
If the source of an utterance gives it value, this quote is the most significant in this post. Dominique is an elegant example of dealing with adversity and learning to use it for positive change.
I grew up watching Dominique compete and still follow her on her mission to help others overcome their trauma and hardship. She is a personal hero of mine.
Do search for her name if you don’t know it already.
5) Finding your motivation
“There’s mornings when my body aches or my mind is just not with it. But that’s part of being an athlete and accomplishing a goal that seems unattainable. You have to find your motivation, what inspires you.”
– Jonathan Horton
Another of my contentions and one for which I get much disagreement from some of my athletes.
Motivation is a personal endeavour. As coaches, we must help our athletes find what inspires them, but we cannot think for them about that inspiration, lest their efforts falter when they leave our presence.
6) The lesson
“Through that experience of doing gymnastics again, I found my love and my passion for all the sport does have to offer. It offers much more than an Olympic accolade or National Title. It was grounding, it made me an extremely hard worker, super motivated.”
– Kristie Phillips
I can’t add more to this, and I won’t try.
Thank you for reading. If you have any quotes or saying that uplift you, share them with me. I’m always looking to feed my inspiration.
— Coach José
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