Work Ethic is a Skill

Your work ethic can be improved significantly over time, just like any other skill…

A good work ethic is admired not only in sports but in all fields all over the world. Every coach in every sport admires the kind of athlete who comes to practice early, stays late, and works diligently the entire time.

If you are an athlete seeking to be a champion, you must develop a good work ethic and you should know that few people are born with terrific work ethics. Mostly, an admirable or impressive work ethic is developed over time, just as is any other skill in sports. You work as hard as you can and you keep trying to improve your ability to work even harder.

Are you lazy? Do you get accused of not working up to your potential? You can change that—if you want to.

Besides concentrating more and constantly urging yourself to work harder, try doing some things that are clearly different from what others are doing.

• Get up before school and work out.

• Do some special kind of workout or meditation late at night.

• Add something unusual to your routine and keep at it long enough to let yourself feel the joy of getting praise for your unexpected efforts.

Many so-called lazy athletes have changed and dramatically altered their work ethic after feeling the pride that comes with special recognition from friends, athletes and coaches. Of course this kind of recognition is not likely to come overnight. People will usually have to see you sticking to something for a while before they are likely to praise your efforts.

But it isn’t that hard to get started and you don’t have to start by climbing Mount Everest. Choose something that takes ten or fifteen minutes and just do it at an unusual time. When you start getting some recognition, the effort will get easier.

Remember, your work ethic can be improved significantly over time just like any other skill, and this is one skill you will never regret improving. Any time spent on improving your work ethic will be useful for the rest of your life, and admired too. This area cannot be left to chance. You cannot work just to improve your skill level in your sport, you must work to improve your ability to work at improving your skill level. It sounds confusing at first, but every champion knows precisely what this means.