This past week, the 1% Academy was more successful than I could’ve imagined, primarily due to the participation we received during the evening discussions on Twitter. We covered five topics: Excuses, Pressure, Jitters, Freeing The Mind, and Fear Of The Miss. No matter the topic, one fact held true, and is what I want to talk about today.

The biggest difference between physical and mental practice is the immediate gratification you get when you do it correctly. When working on your physical game, you get automatic positive feedback when you’re improving. The mental game can be much different. Although you may be improving, very often, the results won’t show until much further down the road. This is very frustrating, especially if you’re putting in hours and hours of practice.

We all want IT right now — improvement, success, and the win. The physical game takes care of this craving if you’re doing it correctly, because you get that immediate feedback. When you hit a good shot, you see and feel it right away. Conversely, in the mental game, when you make a good decision and stay patient with your process, the result doesn’t always show it’s face until later… after many more hours of persistent practice. The mental and emotional game is primarily habit-based, specifically creating new habits, eliminating the ones that held you back in the past. The only way to accomplish this is daily repetition – more than most realize.

Whether we’re talking excuses, pressure, or fear of missing, the main component of your improvement will always be the decision to commit to the long term process. The details of the “how’s” mean nothing if you’re not completely dedicated to everything that needs to take place along the way: Failure, struggle, pain, frustration, excitement, loss, hope, passion, and even more struggle. Most people don’t fully commit to mental game achievement because it’s not tangible, therefore making them constantly doubt their efforts. Know in advance that the process of this journey is more difficult and time consuming than anything you’ve ever faced prior.

We covered five topics last week, all different in many ways, similar in some, but all under the same umbrella: The decision to commit to daily practice. Make a conscious decision that you’ll commit every fiber in your body to become 1% great!

A student recently asked, “How do I choose excitement over the situation, rather than fear?” My answer: How did you choose your clothes this morning?

Decide … period!

It doesn’t have to be rocket science, but it does need to be chosen. I used to be a victim of this “waiting for answers” mindset. I began having next level success when I made a committed decision to keep making committed decisions!

The more you decide to be great, the easier it becomes to continue deciding. No one can teach you how to decide. There needs to be a burning desire inside your core to choose 1% over mediocrity.

Fear and doubt creep in, making it difficult for committed decisions to form, yet ironically, eliminating fear and doubt is also a choice. We’re not slaves to negativity, as most believe. We control our decisions.

If not now … when?