In sports you always have to stay motivated, as it is the only way to keep getting better. It does not matter if you are at the top of your game, if you are working your way up, or even if you are a coach. You must find a way to motivate yourself and for coaches you must help athletes find ways to help athletes stay motivated.
Injuries are the number one way to discourage an athlete, but these negative events that happen in our lives can just as easily be turned into a positive if we allow them too. It is ok to feel sorry for yourself for a short period of time, but after, time and energy needs to be put into your next move. You need to ask yourself, how can I use what has happened to my advantage? Too many times do I see people have something not go there way and they just want to quit, or they stop working hard and become party animals. On the other hand, I see so many athletes have a great performance and never touch that again. This is because once they did something great they forgot the hard work they put in to get them there. They sit back and soak in the limelight, but while they are doing this not only are they wasting time not getting better, but someone else is out there working to take their spot.
The way I see it is once you think you don’t need to become better, that is when you are the most vulnerable. You are no longer open to the idea of getting everything as close to perfect as possible. Everyone is motivated in different ways, as an athlete or a coach it is vital to find what motivates you, or an athlete you are coaching. For me, people saying “I am not able to do something” …motivates me, “see other people do great things” …motivates me, and the fact that I know I am not the most talented but If I work harder at it than others …motivates me.
That’s just me though, some people do not need to hear negative things, they may need people around them who always tell them what they want to hear. At the end of the day you need that motivation it will drive you to work that much harder when not a soul in the world is watching you. What motivates you? Figure it out because it is just as important for you to know that as it is for a coach to figure it out.
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