Mark Spitz Quotes

We have to achieve what we can, and if we haven't yet learned that we are not always going to get our way this could be frustrating.

Everybody has a job to do, and you just know that every day you have to do what it takes to get there. Of course, everybody has those days where you don't feel like doing it. I'm just like anybody else in that respect. But there's a difference between not feeling like doing it and not doing it period.

I hate not practicing.

A lot of people in our generation like to make excuses about little things that really don't hinder them from doing what they want to. It always comes down to the work ethic.

Cut your excuses in half and double your actions around your goals.

If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

It is much easier to start something than to finish it.

Michael Jordan taught me after our game of one-on-one: A loss is not a failure until you make an excuse. When excuses are no longer an option, you can focus your attention on the job you have to do, and not why it didn't get done.

We clearly see in God's Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It's easier to come up with excuses for why we can't do things that are hard or that we really don't want to do.

I honestly thought I was going to win a major championship quicker than what I did, but it clearly took a little bit longer than expected.

Patience is something that, as a young man, I didn't have - when waiting for parts to arrive or waiting for people to behave as I wanted them to.

After you do this for a while, you get used to things not working the way you want them to. There's a job you want, and you don't get it. There's a movie you'd like to get made, and it doesn't get made. You become inured to it.

I've been in baseball my whole life, so I understand there's a lot in baseball that is out of your control, and you have to focus on the things you can control.

I used to delay doing stuff that I just didn't want to deal with - things like putting the garden hose away properly or doing the dishes right after dinner. Now I have this little voice in my head that says, 'I know you don't want to do this, but just do it anyway.' In other words, there's far less stuff that I put off until tomorrow.

Failure is an awful thing, and when I look at the common denominator of failure, it seems to always be the same thing: excuses.

It sounds elementary, but I've seen some really talented kids leave Barca because they wouldn't listen or thought they had become a professional before they did. If you are not good in a group then you don't have a place at Barca.

I think the most difficult part is being patient for good work to come. Sometimes, you feel like giving up if things don't materialise in a short period of time.

The hardest thing for me is to be patient and realize that it's not all going to happen right now. I just have to keep digging away, digging away. Just keep working on my game.

In the past I would give myself a reason to have an excuse. I wouldn't show up at the gym. I wouldn't do what I'm supposed to do as a professional.

It's annoying to be on the bench - it's truly annoying - but it's a test you have to overcome, and that's how you progress. It's difficult because all you want is to be able to help the team, and when you're on the bench, you can't.

This game is very humbling and you have to take it one pitch at a time, one day at a time and compete.

Basically, discipline, effort, patience and courage are hugely important core values for kids to grow up embracing.

Work hard, work away from the game, work when no one's looking, and just knowing that it's a process. Everything will come at the right time.

There's no excuse for losing for me.

Don't ever postpone things - that was very clear in our family.