Diet
Diet is what you eat…how you fuel your body. While types of diets and foods consumed can vary from person to person, we’re all human and must consume macronutrients and micronutrients to live. Protein, carbohydrates, fats (known as macronutrients—nutrients required in the highest amounts), vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients (micronutrients are essential dietary elements required in only small quantities) need to be consumed in the right forms and in adequate and balanced amounts for optimal health and performance.
Proteins supply energy and provide structural components necessary for growth and repair of tissue. They’re made up of chains of amino acids, which are the building blocks of organs, muscles, nerves, enzymes and hormones.
Carbohydrates provide energy needed to drive bodily chemical processes. Fats are building blocks for cell membranes, hormones, enzymes and neurotransmitters and are a component of the myelin sheath around nerves, making it possible to fire electrical messages that enable you to think, see, hear, feel and move.
Vitamins and minerals are needed in lesser amounts by the body (micronutrients), but are essential for normal growth, muscle response, health of the nervous system, digestion, production of hormones, and metabolism of nutrients. Vitamins and minerals can be supplied by a varied diet of whole fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, fish and animal products. They can also be consumed through dietary supplementation.
Make sure the diet you consume fuels your body so that it can perform at an optimal level.
Discipline
There are a few definitions for “discipline,” but these are some general takeaways. When a person has discipline, he or she has self-control. Discipline can also mean a system of rules of conduct or method of practice, or to develop behavior by instruction and practice. Additionally, it can be defined as training that corrects, molds or perfects the mental faculties, moral character or to improve strength. In Latin, disciplina meant “teaching, learning,” while in Old English it meant “a branch of knowledge or field of study.” Likewise, to develop discipline as a form of training dates back more than 500 years as a military concept.
Without self-discipline, success is impossible. Period.
Lou Holtz
Success at anything will always come down to this: focus and effort. And we control both.
The Rock
As a young athlete, you know the significance of discipline in your success. You made your choice to become the best athlete you can be, and now you manage that decision every day through discipline. It’s part of your commitment to training regularly, to learning, to growing, to improving—and even your diet and lifestyle choices, including sticking to your diet and recovery days (no matter how difficult that may be because you’re so motivated!) as well as disciplining yourself to take your supplements daily.
More inspirational quotes:
There is no way around hard work. Embrace it. You have to put in the hours because there’s always something which you can improve.
Roger Federer
You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.
Michael Jordan
You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.
Arthur Ashe
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
Tim Notke
The ability to conquer one’s self is no doubt the most precious of all things that sports bestows.
Olga Korbut
Dedication
Discipline is imperative for achieving goals, but so is dedication. Similar phrases like “self-sacrificing devotion” or “extreme loyalty” may come to mind when you hear the word “dedication”—and those definitions apply here. As a young athlete who has put your “Yes.” on the table to engage the mission fully—no matter what the demands, obstacles or sacrifices are—you are fully dedicated to achieving your goals. Dedication is the passion or fire that burns deeply within you and inspires you to keep going, because you believe in something so much. You want success—and your dedication combined with your discipline can take you further than either one can alone.
Passion first and everything will fall into place.
Holly Holm
If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.
Michael Phelps
Dedication is necessary for an athlete to improve skills and to maintain focus and composure while under pressure. It can be the determining factor inside and outside of training that can influence the athlete’s future—and is possibly the true secret to success in sports. While your training time may add up to a certain number of hours a day or week, your dedication should be 24/7.
In this BMC Psychology study, 237 young amateur and professional athletes (142 males and 95 females with a median age of 22.7) were studied to determine the impact of athletes’ dedication to sports they’re interested in and how it affects their passion for their sport of choice as well as their identity as an athlete. The results? Dedication plays a strong role in extending motivation and goal commitment over a long period of time, and higher the level of an athlete’s dedication, the easier it is to reach a strong athlete identity—which is, in part, shaped by the athlete’s passion. Furthermore, it suggests that young athletes, particularly in lower age groups, and their coaches should recognize the importance of passion and dedication in creating an athlete’s identity.
More inspirational quotes:
There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either IN or you're OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between.
Pat Riley
Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.
George Halas
Surpassing my achievements feels incredible; I want to replicate that again and again.
Katherine Reutter
I’ve never tried to hide the fact that it is my intention to become the best.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
Vince Lombardi
Determination
Along with a healthy diet, consistent discipline, and passionate dedication, determination is key. It’s the act of deciding definitely and firmly—an immovable intention to achieve a desired outcome.
The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination.
Tommy Lasorda
The moment you give up is the moment you let someone else win.
Kobe Bryant
Some may think that motivation and determination mean the same thing. While they’re close in meaning and both are good traits and necessary for success, they differ in meaning. Motivation is more of an internal force that pushes people to start, to continue or even stop a certain behavior or action. Dedication, by contrast, is a firm intention to achieve a goal, no matter whether you feel motivated or not. In short, dedication will push you to complete what you’ve started out to achieve, even after motivation dwindles. For instance, if you hit challenges in your athletic pursuits (and you will), your motivation may take a hit, but your determination can keep you going until you get beyond those obstacles.
More inspirational quotes:
I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career… I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan
I was the kid that was the 199th pick that never had the body for it. People didn't think I'd play one year in the NFL, and now I'm going on my 17th year.
Tom Brady
Everything negative—pressure, challenges—is all an opportunity for me to rise.
Kobe Bryant
There’s always a point where you get knocked down. But I draw on what I’ve learned on the track: If you work hard, things will work out.
Lolo Jones
Everything that I’ve ever been able to accomplish in skating and in life has come out of adversity and perseverance.
Scott Hamilton
Winners never quit and quitters never win.
Vince Lombardi
Dream
A health-focused diet, self-discipline, unwavering dedication and determination are essential for athletic success. When you’re actively pursuing your athletic goals, it’s also important to dream—not in a daydreaming unrealistic way. Rather, dream in terms of visioning and envisioning your future success (what it looks like) as well as reaching those yet-unrealized strongly desired goals (imagining all the possibilities that can fully satisfy your ambitions). The ability to dream can have a real impact on one’s performance and success.
I would say to always follow your dream. And dream big because my whole career, including any of the things that I've accomplished, I never thought in a million years that I would be here. So, it just proves that once you believe in yourself, and you put your mind to something, you can do it.
Simone Biles
Interestingly, researchers have found that actual dreaming while asleep can help an athlete in rehearsing movement and is a form of mental practice. This is called lucid dream practice, or LDP. Past studies have shown that LDP can actually enhance a person’s physical performance. In an abstract found in Current Issues in Sports Science, the study’s authors concluded that LDP has great possibilities for sports practice and in other areas of application.
Here are more inspirational quotes:
You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.
Michael Phelps
Nothing is impossible. With so many people saying it couldn’t be done, all it takes is an imagination.
Michael Phelps
If you dream and you allow yourself to dream you can do anything.
Clara Hughes
Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit.
Wilma Rudolph
Never put an age limit on your dreams.
Dara Torres
Sources for Definitions: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary; Vocabulary.com