As a young competitive gymnast, embarking on such a concrete journey of strength, resilience, and determination, one thing always stuck with me no matter how hard it got - being an athlete is 90% mindset and only 10% physical strength. This is why I define the Athletic Mindset in my book, Beyond the Sport, as a foundational platform of mental and physical abilities, but the most important of the two is mental. The second thing that stuck with me is never to say the words, "I can't" because if I had I would suffer the consequences...this meant an infinite amount of pushups,  but besides that, the belief that I wasn't good enough. 

This limiting belief is something that we all struggle with on a day-to-day basis, and I would be lying to you if I said I've mastered this. This limiting belief is what keeps us at odds with our inner athlete and stops us from accomplishing our goals. A question that always comes up is, "what makes me different from him/her?" The answer, my friend, is...mindset. First of all, one of the basic principles in my book is that 'comparison fuels doubt and it is the thief of confidence.' The most important thing to understand is, without cultivating the mindset first, your physical strength will only get you so far. I learned that the hard way.