When I was getting my MBA, I had a normative microeconomics professor spend a lecture on the individual self evaluation decision making process. The key take-away from that lecture was: determine what you want, count the cost, and then pay those costs. Determining what you want and counting the cost is about goal setting. Paying the cost to achieve success is about long-term dedication to developing the knowledge and skills to be a high performer.
Doing Your Best Is Not Dedication
"Doing your best" is a popular phrase when a player is ask to perform. It is a rare achievement and not measurable. How do you know you did your best? In order to know your potential and limits, a player must make every effort to go beyond what is desired. Exceptional achievers are willing to push themselves further to understand what are their current limits and then dedicate themselves to going beyond the limits. They set goals for themselves and then work tirelessly to attain those goals. If it was easy, then exceptional achievers would be the norm and they would not be exceptional.
The player who commits himself in this way recognizes what must be done to improve their performance and see opportunities for doing so. The uncommitted player sees what cannot be accomplished and is discouraged. He is unwilling to overcome the great psychological investment required for the merging of attention, energy, and effort. Whatever the achievement, he does not consider himself a success. The single most powerful predictor of success in the long run is commitment, not just a willingness, but a desire to work hard toward achieving well-defined goals. Achieving goals has more to do with intensity than with intentions, actions more than words or hopes.
Dedication That Leads To Success
The definition of dedication is the state of being bound emotionally and intellectually to some course of action. It is a long-term commitment to excel in a particular endeavor. Being emotionally attached and intellectually focused on developing skills creates mentally tough and confident player who is relaxed during high-pressure game situations.
Mental toughness is developed through dedication to your skill development during practice. The mentally tough competitor recognizes that his own high expectations require and justify a high investment of self. Mental toughness relates to your ability to handle adversity, to perform under pressure, and to be focused enough to block out the negativity and adversity you face during competition. Mental toughness is learned by routinizing behaviors that develops confidence and poise. Muscle memory is developed during repetitious practice for skill development that clicks on the desired mental-emotional state during the pressure of the game.
Confidence is developed through dedication to practicing your skills. Michael Jordan missed over 13000 shots, missed 26 game winning shots, and lost more than 300 games during his career on his way to winning 6 NBA World Championship titles and 5 MVP awards. Tom Seaver walked almost 1400 batters, gave up over 3900 hits, and allowed over 1600 runs on his way to playing on 12 All-Star teams and being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1992. Why were these athletes successful in spite of such failures, because they dedicate themselves to practicing their skills when no one else was around to develop the confidence in their abilities to bounce back despite failing. Dedicate yourself to the process of competing well in practice to build confidence in your abilities and the winning will take care of itself.
The most successful athlete is the one who is relaxed and stays loose. The efforts of a relaxed player is derived in large part from past success, confidence, concentration, and self-discipline. This comes from dedication to approach - to technique that has become a habit - both mentally and physically. If you want to be the best, then you have to be dedicated to the game. This means, doing drills one more time till you get it right. It means sacrificing some personal time from doing something fun so that the muscles know how to act instinctively during the game pressure. It means, not being satisfied with being average, but dedicating yourself to be the best in your chosen position.
Success Predictor
The single most powerful predictor of success in the long run is commitment, not just willingness, but a desire to work hard toward being the best. This pertains athletic competition as well as life in general. This should not come as a surprise. Let us do some quick math. If you spend three hours a week working on your skill development outside of the normal team practice time during the season as well as during the off season. This gives you 156 hours of extra skill development practice over the average player. A typical high school season runs about sixteen weeks with two hour team practice or game six days a week. This is about 192 hours of sport involvement per season. By spending the couple of hours of personal time a week developing your skills, gives you almost an extra season every year, especially when you consider that half of the team practice time is not spent working on skill development, but team and player coordination to get everyone working as a single unit. If you get two seasons to your average players one season, do you think you will be a better player the next year? Three extra hours a week takes dedication.
Determine what you want to achieve, count the cost of achievement, and dedicate yourself to paying the cost. When the inevitable shortfall occurs, take some personal practice time and work to routinize the necessary skill. The rewards for your effort will become visible within a year. Dedicate yourself to success.