“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence”– Vince Lombardi

All athletes want to succeed in their respective game. Whether it’s in mastering a skill, learning some new techniques, speed running, or improving your mental game.

For those of you who have tried and failed, success seems elusive. Why it is one person succeeds where another person fails?

According to sports psychologist for football, there are two main reasons for this. First and foremost, it is your football mindset. Secondly, most successful football players have developed certain habits through hard work, which you haven’t stumbled upon yet.

What you want is often quite different from the current position you are in. You have to bridge the gap between your current situation and your wanted one. And this is good! We all have the innate drive to develop, to learn, to get better.

To get better, it takes hard work. Now, it’s quite a long way to reach the top of the mountain when you are at the very foot of this mountain. While you’re at it, you do at least see the progress you are making uphill. You see you are getting higher, farther from the beginning and closer to the top.

These are indicators of making progress. Progress comes with feelings of success, of rewards which make you feel good and make you go on and on to be better a better player.

Consistency is one of the most important ingredients that goes into success.

Consistency is about building small empowering habits and rituals that you partake in every single day that keep you focused on your highest priorities and goals.

It therefore essentially comes down to your ability to hold yourself accountable for the daily choices you make with no excuses and no complaints.

You and you alone are accountable for what you do and what you fail to do. All responsibility lies solely in your hands.

To be consistent means to focus on the present moment while maintaining a long-term view that helps you measure your results and the impact of your daily actions.

With this regular feedback in your hands you are better able to learn from your failures and mistakes to help you effectively alter your course of action where required.

Consistency is therefore all about your football mental toughness.

It’s about repeating the same actions (habits and rituals) over and over again; gaining feedback from these actions, and adjusting them accordingly to help you stay on track as you work towards your goal. And that in essence is the difference between success and failure in any field of endeavor, and the key to high levels of achievement.

Working hard and having a great attitude in your football mental game, though, always contributes to building great character.

Having great character won’t guarantee you an opportunity to be a starter on your team or compete for a title, but it will lead to you becoming a great person, and great people ultimately win in life.

When hard work is met with the right mindset and the right circumstances, success will always be within reach on and of the gridiron.

Work hard. Be great.

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