3. Practice With a Purpose
Highly successful people put in the time to practice and prepare. They look at practice as a privilege and an opportunity to develop new skills and become better at the necessary fundamentals. Achievers enjoy the drills for what they are.
Success in professional athletic competitions always comes down to the person or team who has prepared the most thoroughly. In a similar vein, success in most fields comes to the person who puts in the effort to practice and prepare. If you plan on excelling at whatever you attempt, you'd better be prepared to put in lots of time practicing. You just won't be able to get ahead of the competition any other way. ...
4. Strive for excellence
To achieve excellence, you have to surpass your own expectations and those others have for you. To achieve these heights, you have to be prepared to work hard. There is no realistic substitute.
Becoming excellent is a learned skill. It does not come naturally for anyone, despite what you may think. Everyone who is excellent at what they do gets to be that way through a huge, concentrated effort to improve. This will embrace both physical effort as well as intense mental effort.
People attract whatever they focus on most of the time. If you concentrate on and think about excellence and success most of the time, eventually that's what you'll find. The world is filled with possibilities and opportunities to do great things. It's the ongoing pursuit of perfection that's important, not how far short of the ideal you ultimately end up. ...