I have a massive poster with a quote in my gym, where I coach Sobha and other future Asian soccer stars. The quote comes from the legendary fighter and sportsman, Muhammad Ali:

“Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion”

This is the last sentence, and most important part of a longer quote in which he says:

” I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’ ”

It’s a very simple philosophy and either you’ll get the message or you won’t.

Generally, in life and especially in competitive sports, those that get the message will succeed. Those that think they don’t need to suffer at all will never really get anywhere at all.

But lets see what the real message of suffering is. I believe it isn’t about the physical, brutal nature of what the word implies and I don’t think that Muhammad Ali meant it that way when he said ” I hated every minute of training”.

I think it’s more about focused attention, about a state of mind.

Let’s take the example of Sobha. Some days he wakes up and he’s not in a state of mind for training… he doesn’t want to suffer the physical and sometimes brutal endurance that he knows his young body has to go through for the next couple of hours.

But as soon as he gets focused on his goal and his training, his state of mind shifts to another level and he actually starts to enjoy the physical endurance knowing that he is getting closer to his goal of playing professional soccer.

He starts thinking like a champion. And in his mind that’s exactly what he is.

Every one has different goals and some come easier than others. Champions understand this.

But champions regard the journey towards the goal as small battles that win the war.

So the message is clear.

“Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion”.