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For Kobe Bryant, discipline wasn't a punishment; it was a contract he signed with himself. He viewed it as the bridge between his goals and his reality. He never negotiated with his alarm clock. If he said he would do it, it was done. He taught that discipline is the highest form of self-love, because it is the only vehicle that can deliver you to your dreams. 'I have nothing in common with lazy people who blame others for their lack of success. '
"You have to work hard in the dark to shine in the light."
"We psyche ourselves up too much. If you want to be a great player, you have to play. It’s that simple."
"Conditioning is the one thing you can control. You might not have the most talent, but you can always be the most fit."
"When you fail, you don't look at the result. You look at the process and you fix the process."
"Rest at the end, not in the middle."
"My routine was grueling. It was 6:00 AM to 8:00 AM, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, and 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Every single day."
"My diet was a weapon. I ate what I needed to fuel the machine, not what I wanted to taste."
"I don't care about the failure. I care about the process that led to it."
"If you're not training when everyone else is sleeping, you're not doing enough."
"I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language."
"To be a master, you must be obsessed. You must live it, breathe it, and sleep it."
"I treated every practice like it was Game 7. If you can't do it in the dark, you can't do it under the lights."
"Those times when you get up early and you work hard, those times when you stay up late and you work hard, those times when you don't feel like working, you're too tired, you don't want to push yourself, but you do it anyway. That is actually the dream."
"The long-distance running wasn't for the cardio; it was for the mental discipline of not stopping when your mind tells you to."
"I don't fear the outcome. I fear the lack of effort."
"Fear is a state of mind. It's a choice. You can either let it paralyze you or you can let it drive you."
"I didn't have a 'day off' in twenty years. Even when I was on vacation, I was training my body."
"The fear of failure is what drives me to prepare so hard."
"I'll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it's sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot."
"You have to be willing to be bored with the basics. Mastery of fitness is mastery of the fundamentals."
"The fear of not living up to my own expectations was always greater than the fear of external criticism."
"Dedication sees dreams come true."
"If you start at 4 AM, and you do two hours of work, then you come back at 10 AM and do two more, then at 3 PM and do two more, then at 7 PM and do two more—you have done more work than anybody else."
Seeing how Kobe Bryant approaches Discipline helps you apply the idea with more precision.
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"Use this collection whenever you need Kobe Bryant's lens on Discipline."