Decide Your Fate

When I was an athlete my inner talent was ‘good’—but not ‘great.’
So what did I have to do?
I had to use all my self-discipline to close the gap with guys who had great talent but not great self-discipline.
But I made a mistake.
I thought that my body and my mind didn’t need rest.

When I was 14, I was working out for more than 500 hours per year (and I was in school, naturally).
No rest.
But immediately my Coach taught me the importance of rest — daily rest and weekly rest.
Otherwise I’d have risked overtraining.

This is why now I work in 50-minute slots, resting 10 minutes from one slot to another.
This is why I don’t touch my work for 12 hours.
Yeah, I probably work 12 hours per day, but in the other 12, there are no emails, notifications, or other work-related tasks.
And that is why I can say without any problem that I’m never stressed.

So here is another lesson we can learn from sports:
→   Work + Work = Stress
→   Work + Rest = Improvement *