“Competition is won or lost on the six-inch playing field between the ears.”
“Ninety percent of the game is half mental.”
— Yogi Berra
“You have to train your mind like you train your body.”
— Bruce Jenner
“The mind messes up more shots than the body.”
— Tommy Bolt
“The most important attribute a player must have is mental toughness.”
— Mia Hamm
“Competitive toughness is an acquired skill and not an inherited gift.”
— Chris Evert
“The ability to conquer oneself is no doubt the most precious of all things sports bestows on us.”
— Olga Korbut
“You must have dreams and goals if you are ever going to achieve anything in this world.”
— Lou Holtz
“I’m a firm believer in goal setting. Step by step. I can’t see any other way of accomplishing anything.”
— Michael Jordan
“Talent is never enough. With few exceptions the best players are the hardest workers.”
— Magic Johnson
“The bottom line is you can’t be afraid to fail.”
— Jerry Colangelo
“Motivation gets you going. Discipline keeps you going.”
— Jim Ryan
“When you have fun, it changes all the pressure into pleasure.”
— Ken Griffey Jr.
“I firmly believe that the only disability in life is a bad attitude.”
— Scott Hamilton
“When you believe in yourself and the people you surround yourself with, you will win something really big someday.”
— Dick Vermeil
“A player who cannot control his temper on the court will never become a great player.”
— Bjorn Borg
“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“Fretting about the shot you just made will get you another just like it.”
— Al Henderson
“The less tension and effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”
— Bruce Lee
“An anxious mind cannot exist in a relaxed body. When one is anxious, so is the other. When one is at rest, so is the other.”
“It’s not between me and the pitcher. It’s between me and the ball.”
— Matt Williams
“I see the ball, I hit the ball.”
— Ken Griffey Jr.
“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.”
— Pierre de Coubertin
“The team that makes the most mistakes will probably win. The doer makes mistakes, and I want doers on my team — players who make things happen.”
— John Wooden
“Great teachers don’t teach. They help students learn. Students teach themselves.”
— Jacob Neusner
“Success is perishable and often outside our control. In contrast, excellence is something that’s lasting, dependable, and largely within a person’s control.”
— Joe Paterno
“Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.”
“Be thankful for adversity — it separates the winners from the quitters.”
“A winner never quits. A quitter never wins.”
“Life does not require that we become the biggest or the best, only that we try.”
“Life is like a ten-speed bike: Most of us have gears we never use.”
— Charles Schulz
“If what you did yesterday seems important, then you haven’t accomplished anything today.”
“He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”
— Ben Franklin
“Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination.”
“Together Everyone Achieves More.”
“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.”
— George MacDonald
“If he works for you, you work for him.”
— Japanese Proverb
“The crisis of yesterday is the joke of tomorrow.”
— H.G. Wells
“In war there is no substitute for victory.”
— Douglas MacArthur
“Success generally depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.”
— Montesquieu
“The minute you start talking about what you’re going to do if you lose, you’ve lost.”
— George Shultz
“Each success only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult problem.”
— Henry Kissinger
“There’s more to life than sports, and there’s more to sports than sports.”
“Character is perseverance after the initial excitement has worn off.”
“Sports doesn’t build character; it reveals it.”
— Heywood Hale Broun
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The more you venture to live greatly, the more you will find within you what it takes to get on top of things and stay there.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
“Imagine your goal. Hold that image in consciousness. Keep that image always before you and your goal will materialize.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
“Know that you are yourself a miracle. And believe you can make miracles happen… by thinking, praying, believing, working, and by helping people.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
“You can become free of worry by practicing the opposite and stronger habit of faith.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
“Those who perfect the ‘try’ technique may not be endowed with brilliant talent, but they go places in life because they become indomitable and undefeatable competitors.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
“A major key to success is to throw all there is of yourself into your job or any project. Whatever you are doing, give it all you’ve got.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
“The truth is that there is much more strength and power in the individual than he has ever known or even visualized as a possibility.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
“Become a positive thinker. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities… they’re always there.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
“You can reach your goal, your best dreams can come true, and you can get where you want to go only if you know what your goal is.”
— Norman Vincent Peale