“Great shooters don’t spend extra time in the gym, they sacrifice time.  Everyone has the same 24 hours. Nothing extra about it.” Greg White.

You know I love sports analogies and this caught my attention: Everyone has the same 24 hours.

White reminds us that to become an expert at something, you make a choice to dedicate yourself to the task.  Your commitment to excellence means something gets done while other things remain undone or unattended.

That’s the nature of the sacrifice.  I pursue one avenue of excellence which costs me to sacrifice other avenues  I could pursue. It’s a pure and certain tradeoff. Give resources to who or what I want to be.

I listen to Charlie Rose on PBS.  He interviews the best in their fields about many areas of expertise: architecture, theatre, athletics, politics, business, cinema and arts.  You name it.

One of the reasons I love his interviews is that he probes these folks for their secrets and methods.  He remarked recently that no matter how many folks he interviewed, no one has ever said it came easy.  Every person who has achieved extraordinary things did it by putting in the hours, refining the craft and working on it with passion.

Whatever you want to become will come with your choices. Both where you choose to put your time and also where you don’t.