After I decided to go back to college, I knew that It wasn’t going to be easy. I knew that I was going to have to balance family, work, and school. I was going to be studying, researching, and doing homework every spare minute in my day. But I had a goal to get my degree in psychology and a dream have a career training athletes to conquer the world.

At first I was excited. I loved being a student. I would take out my books and with pride I would highlight the important parts, take notes, and transfer the facts onto index cards. I would watch videos and read extra books. I loved the feeling of getting smarter and learning information.

As time went by and I was getting to the middle of the semester the excitement had worn off and studying, researching, and doing homework got very redundant and at times seemed senseless. But I had to do it anyway. I couldn’t just stop mid-semester (I could have, but I would have failed the class). So even when I wanted to go out to dinner with my family or watch T.V. I didn’t; I studied, I did my research, I wrote my papers, and I did my homework. After the semester was over, I had A’s in all my classes and a 4.0 GPA to show for my hard work.

Sometimes you have to do things even when you don’t want to because you have a dream or a goal.

I know it can be difficult to put in the extra work when no one is looking. I know that sometimes we may think that slacking off a little bit today won’t affect our tomorrow. But it will and it does. So do it, put in the extra work, go workout instead of sleeping in, choose the water instead of the soda, and do it even when you don’t want to.

Champions set their goals high and they know that the journey won’t be easy. They will be tired and sore and mentally drained. But they chose their goal and they chose their life. A champion knows they wouldn’t want it any other way.

A true champion wants things to be tough. They want a challenge. They want to put in the work. They know that there will times when they will have to make a decision to work or play. And when everyone else will choose play, a champion will chose work. They don’t care when everyone else chooses to play because it is harder to choose work. If everyone chose to work, then working wouldn’t be special. Champions like to be special, so they like pushing themselves when others quit. They like seeing what they are capable of and then pushing even further. The like walking up to the edge and jumping off.

And that is why a champion will be always be a champion. They will put in the work that no one else will. They will work when others play. They will work even when they are beat down and they don’t want to. They will keep going when others stop. They will see their limits and ignore them. They will go until they get it right, and when they think they can not push themselves any more…they will get up and  do it anyway.