“Whatever it is that you desire to do in life, have the courage and the commitment to do it and to do it to your absolute best.” –Pat Summitt

Pat Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history who won eight national championships at the University of Tennessee, wrote about commitment and pushing oneself to greatness in her new book, Sum It Up.

Summitt retired last year after being diagnosed with early onset dementia, Alzheimer’s Type. In her book, written with the assistance of Sally Jenkins, Summitt talks about how making commitments can help you work towards goals. Try applying it to your training, and see where it takes you. Here’s what she says.

“A lot of people are afraid of commitment because it means they’ll have to say ‘that’s the best I can do.’ They elect to be average. When you compete, you decide to find out what your real limits are, not just what you think they are.“

Summitt goes on to write about a time that she pushed her players to the limit after an embarrassing loss on the road, making them run suicides for their mistakes when they got back to campus in the middle of the night. A paraphrase of her description of pushing her players’ mental and physical limits follows.

“Most people have no idea what they are capable of—they didn’t have a clue. There is an old saying that ‘a champion is someone who is willing to be uncomfortable.’ If you turn away from real effort, you’ll settle for less. If you do it once, you’ll do it for the rest of your life.”

Don’t let lack of effort be the reason you don’t reach your training goals, whether they be performance or body composition based. Aim high, and approach every day like it is a national championship.

Reference
Pat Summitt and Sally Jenkins. Sum It Up. New York: Random House. 2013.