Daily Motivations - THE ART OF WINNING

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

Tired is only in the mind. Everyone's great when they aren't tired. It's when they're tired is when the real champions come out.  featuring speeches from Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, Patrick Mouratoglou, Aaron Rodgers, Steph Curry, Tim Grover, and more. Instagram - @daily_motivationsorg Facebook- @daily_motivationsorg

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This was our first time trying therapy and honestly, it was long overdue. Looking back, we just wish we had started sooner. Regain's qualified therapists help couples when they can't get there on their own. We thought it was intimacy issues, but Andrea helped us uncover a deeper root cause we hadn't even realized was there. Visit Regain.com slash couples pod to get 10% off your first month. Regain, couples therapy that works. I went five straight years without missing a single day of workout.

365 days a year. Every single day I was in the water. There are days you're not gonna wanna do it. And everybody has those days. But it's what you do on those days that help you move forward. Winning isn't all of us. Everybody wants the end result,

but what you have to endure to win, no one wants to talk about. If you know that you were destined for something, then you can withstand the setbacks, the difficulties, the bull criticism and all the other things. You know, everybody can compete when they're feeling good, happy, excited, but it's the best people who can overcome when they're tired, sore. The mental power that the greatest athletes have can push all the pain aside. The first time I had met Stephen Curry back in 2007, it was after his freshman year at Davidson, which is before he blew up. No one knew who Stephen Curry was after his freshman year, but I remember there's a few things

really remarkable about him, but the most impressive thing was at the end of the first workout, he came over to me and Steph said, will you rebound for me? Because I don't leave the gym until I swish five free throws in a row. I mean, he was conditioning himself to be in that state. He was conditioning himself to do that, to not accept anything less. And one of the reasons I think he'll go down in history as the best shooter we've ever seen is his ability just to move on to the next shot. But the root of it is, you want to be the best. You love competing, and you want to dominate. The greatest athletes in the world don't make excuses.

I wanted to do something that nobody had ever done before. And that started with a dream and a goal. I wanted to be the greatest of all time. And I think I always felt like I wanted to be good at everything I did and be great at what I did. And I never expected to be as good as I was. No matter what you do in life, where you're at, this is what winning takes,

and it's in all of us. We all have fear, but if you harness it, it takes you to places that you couldn't even imagine. There's mistakes, there's regrets, there's sadness, there's joy, there's frustration, there's sorrow, there's heartbreak, there's elation. It's all part There's heartbreak. There's elation.

It's all part of it. It's all part of life. You know, I said to myself, I'm going to do this and no one's going to stop it. I think that's the biggest thing. In order to win, you have to be seen. Winning is everything. It's everything. This is an ad by Regain Couples Therapy. Let's be honest. Loving your partner doesn't mean you always like them. to everything. Regain is here to support you both. See why people wish they tried couples therapy sooner. Visit Regain.com slash couples pod to get 10% off your first month. That's Regain.com slash couples pod.

This is an ad by Regain couples therapy and features real testimonials. This was our first time trying therapy and honestly, it was long overdue. Looking back, we just wish we had started sooner. Regain's qualified therapists help couples when they can't get there on their own. Honestly, it was long overdue. Looking back, we just wish we had started sooner. Regain's qualified therapist help couples when they can't get there on their own.

We thought it was intimacy issues, but Andrea helped us uncover a deeper root cause we hadn't even realized was there. Visit Regain.com slash couples pod to get 10% off your first month. Regain powered by better help. People are champions when they really see themselves with no limits. When they really see themselves great. Because when you see yourself there, you are much more willing to do the work. You are much more willing to break barriers that others don't break

because they don't really see themselves breaking those barriers and this young guy Djokovic is 19 years old and he plays Roger for the first time in a Grand Slam he's nobody when Novak Djokovic started Rafa and Roger were winning everything it's impossible to win a Grand Slam with those two guys you can't beat them they're just way better than everyone and he's interviewed before the match and he says I'm gonna beat this guy and I remember the press went really bad against him. Who does he think he is? But he was seeing him there.

He was seeing himself there. He was seeing himself better than them, which maybe people saw that as being cocky, but he was just very confident about his abilities. And he ended up being the best of the three. He beat all the records. He beat them on every level because his self-belief was extremely high, his self-esteem the way he was seeing himself. That's how I know if someone is a champion and a lot of people fake it,

which is better than not faking it, but it's not as good as really believing it deeply inside. We talk to young players, they will say, I want to be number one. I mean, they wish. Yeah. The ones who really want to, you know, because then not only saying it, but they're putting on the work and this is a big difference because when you really believe you can get there, it's much easier, it's never easy to work hard, but in a way you are willing to do everything to get there.

When you wish it you do things halfway or you don't do it fully so that's a big difference. But when you look at the road to winning people look at you and they're like you're a success but your road has so many more steps those Those steps are infinite. Sometimes you get to see them, sometimes you don't. Sometimes they're there, other times they're wobbly. You don't know if that next step is gonna be there, but you have enough belief in yourself to say, I know it's there, I'm gonna take that step. I may miss the step, I may fall, I may get scraped, that step may go into quick-stand, but I know there's there, I'm going to take that step. I may miss the step, I may fall, I may get scraped,

that step may go into quick-stand, but I know there's another step. I know it, I believe inside me that there's another step that I have to take, that somebody else isn't making me take. Those steps are infinite. Winning is infinite, those steps are infinite. Of course, if your self-esteem is big, like huge champions, I mean legends like Serena Arvias and I had this discussion with Richard Williams, their father, and he told me my

main focus was to create two young ladies that were believing in themselves in general. And he said to me this, and I believe it, whatever they would have done, they would have been successful. We chose tennis, but if they would have wanted to be runners or singers or whatever, they would have succeeded because they had this incredible self-esteem that they have. And you'll see that whatever they're gonna do in after tennis they're gonna be successful. I think from the get-go I believed I could do it you know it just seems so real to me I'd already gotten sponsors I

was already winning competitions and I saw the pros you know making a great living at what they're doing and I just figured like God if I could just get to that point you know I think I could make a bit of a living out of this. Why would you do crazy efforts working crazy hard to achieve something you don't really believe in? Why would you put yourself at risk to fail if you don't deeply believe that at the end you're gonna make it? Nothing that people never fail of course they fail and Serena failed many times in tennis too. But we remember what she achieved which is much bigger. The great Serena Williams!

I just never think I'm going to lose. I just don't want people to think I'm too cocky or anything. You're only as good as your last win. I hate losing, I mean that's no secret. But you gotta lose, I feel like every time I lose I get better and I think it's important for me to have the losses. Just the fewer the better for me. I think a lot of people just they see you run and they say oh you look so easy, you look effortless. But before it gets to that point it's hard, it's like hard work. Day in day out, sacrifice, day in, day out. The confidence comes from preparation. You know, so when the game's on the line, I'm not asking myself to do something that I haven't done thousands of times before. When I'm prepared, I know what I'm capable of doing, I know what I'm comfortable doing, and I know what I'm not comfortable doing. So in those moments, if it looks like I'm ice cold

or not nervous, it's because I've done it thousands of times before, so it's one more time. No, I've never been afraid. I mean, obviously you're nervous. But afraid means you're not confident in your skills. I have total confidence in my skills, so I'm not afraid. If you put your mind to doing whatever you want to do, good things can happen.

That shot gave me the idea that I could be better than what people think and I can surpass any expectations that I may have for myself. The start is just everyday do something you didn't do the day before. If you just pay attention to the details, you pay attention to the details, those distinctions are easy to see. Everybody talks about working hard, showing up early, showing up late, doing all... Everybody can do that. Everybody can do that. It's the mannerisms of the way they carry themselves. It's the way they compete. It's the way they listen. It's the way they absorb information. How coachable they are. The one thing all my athletes in business, in sports, the best

of the best are so coachable. They listen. They listen. They absorb the information. They pay attention. They're there. Of course you want to win but winning is not a goal. Winning is a a result The goal is what do I focus on? I focus only on things that I can control winning you cannot control everything, but there are a lot of things you can control a Lot of things happen a lot of emotions come in a lot of thoughts come in You have to take them away And the only way to take them away is to talk to yourself in a way that makes you better way and the only way to take them away is to talk to yourself in a way that makes you better.

But you also have to make efforts every day and you do to have those small victories and build yourself as a person that is able to achieve his dreams. By no means have I never made a mistake. I've made lots of mistakes both in and out of the pool and I've been able to learn from every one of those mistakes and I've been able to learn from every one of those mistakes. And I've been able to help people not make the same mistakes that I've made. So keep going. You're doing the right thing.