In sport, if you want to be the best you have to compete against the best - I would much rather have come tenth and be judged against everyone than come first and be judged against just a few.
Daley ThompsonRead
I was in the doldrums for a while after my athletics career ended in 1992. I spent six to eight hours a day training, for 18 years, and it took a long time to get over the regret that I wasn't competing in major championships any more. All I ever wanted to be was the best. But I find new projects and I keep things in perspective.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the challenge of transitioning from a career in athletics to finding fulfillment in new endeavors.
Daley Thompson shares his experience of feeling lost and regretful after his athletic career ended, having dedicated nearly two decades to training for success. Despite this period of stagnation and reflection, he emphasizes the importance of perspective and the pursuit of new projects to regain motivation and purpose in life, highlighting the resilience needed to adapt to change.
In practice
During a motivational speech at a sports training camp.
In sport, if you want to be the best you have to compete against the best - I would much rather have come tenth and be judged against everyone than come first and be judged against just a few.
I did not want to be the best black man of the year; I wanted to be the best man of the year.
Being a decathlete is like having ten girlfriends. You have to love them all, and you can't afford losing one.
I wouldn't swap the era I competed in for anything, not a day of it. I started out as an amateur, and people like myself, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, Tessa Sanderson and the rest did it for the glory of winning medals for our country.
You have to be constantly reinventing yourself and investing in the future.
My generation of Americans, the scions of daring dreamers, the children of the fearlessly faithful and the offspring of many of history's most audacious actors - we, together, drink deeply from wells of freedom, liberty and opportunity that we did not dig.
You have to have a high conception, not of what you are doing, but of what you may do one day: without that, there's no point in working.
Dream big. Start small. But most of all, start.
Hungry people almost never have to be pushed by a manager to work harder, because they are self-motivated and diligent. They are constantly thinking about the next step and the next opportunity. And they loathe the idea that they might be perceived as slackers.
Lust was a positive high-tension cable, plugged into my core, activating a near-epileptic seizure of conviction that this was the one thing I had to do in life.
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