Do you honour your commitment? Do you execute all the responsibilities within your role every match? Do you honour your commitment? When you set out a physical plan are you in the gym when you have to be? Do you honour your commitment? Do you train with focus and intensity? Do you honour your commitment? This is why you should.

Champions are champions, not because they are necessarily the most physically able or the most physically talented. Champions are champions because they honour their commitment. When they set out to do something they do it, without fail, without trepidation, without question, with certainty. That is why they are champions.

Commitment is an every hour thing. It’s an everyday thing. It’s an every week thing. It’s an every month thing. It’s an every year thing. It’s a career thing.

Commitment is like the pig on a plate of bacon and eggs. The hen is involved. The pig is committed.

Commitment – you are either in or you are out. There is no in-between with commitment. You are either in or you are out. And yes I’m speaking to you. I’m speaking to you the player and you the coach. I’m speaking to you the manager and I’m speaking to you the soccer parent. Commitment – you are either in or you are out. Are you in or are you out? Are you the pig or are you the chicken?

A lack of commitment can rear its ugly head on a day to day basis. It’s that voice inside of you that says “shortcut”. It’s that voice inside of you that says “It doesn’t matter”. But it does matter. In sport everything matters. From the critical essentials of training and playing to the less than obvious and oh so subtle work on your mentality and mindset.

A lack of commitment can come packaged as a feeling as well as a thought. That feeling reverberates around your body causing you to eat badly, shirk the gym, avoid the extras, ignore the analysis. That’s what a lack of commitment does. And it eats away at your ability. It diminishes your potential.

With every hour you lack commitment so your future self looks different. So your future rewards look different. So your future success looks different. So your future joy looks different. So the amount of games you play adds up differently. So your reputation looks different.

The truly committed talks to herself. She talks to herself. She doesn’t listen to herself. She doesn’t listen to the voice that says “Wait”. Wait isn’t a thought she pays attention to when it comes to the things she has to execute to improve her game. She doesn’t listen to herself, she talks to herself. She talks to “Wait”. She talks firmly and loudly.

“There is no wait, there is only do. There is no wait, there is only do.” With those words she takes action. She continues the set in the gym. She eats like a champion. She sleeps like a champion. She trains like a champion. She analyses like a champion. Because she knows being a champion is an everyday thing. She knows her football psychology is an everyday thing.

On the pitch she commits. She plays like a champion. She runs, moves, tackles, shoots and passes with no doubt. If doubts creep in she squashes them without hesitation. She commits….relentlessly!

Are you committed. Is your commitment an everyday thing? Yes, I’m talking to you the player, the coach, the manager, the parent. Is your commitment an everyday thing?