I love quotes to get you going when you are feeling less than motivated. Every day that passes you never get back and every day that you are not  working to get better, you are becoming worse.  So with that 'scary' thought in mind and scroll down through the quotes, and you ought to be ready to get out there and practice! These are some of my favorite quotes that I complied from the internet. 

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
--Frank Outlaw

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
--Unknown

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too, can become great.
--Mark Twain

If what you're working for really matters, you'll give it all you've got.
--Nido Qubein

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going."
Beverly Sills

"If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win."
Carl Lewis

"You only ever grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone."
Percy Cerutty

"Continuous effort -- not strength or intelligence -- is the key to unlocking our potential."
Liane Cardes

"Obstacles are those frightening things that become visible when we take our eyes off our goals."
Henry Ford

"What a player does best, he should practice least. Practice is for problems."
Duke Snider

Show me a guy who’s afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time.
-Lou Brock

The only way to overcome is to hang in. Even I'm starting to believe that.
-Dan OBrien

When you're riding, only the race in which you're riding is important.
-Bill Shoemaker

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.
-Seneca

When you're playing against a stacked deck, compete even harder. Show the world how much you'll fight for the winners circle. If you do, someday the cellophane will crackle off a fresh pack, one that belongs to you, and the cards will be stacked in your favor.
-Pat Riley

Adversity cause some men to break; others to break records.
-William A. Ward

Sweat plus sacrifice equals success.
-Charlie Finley

You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do.
-A J Kitt

There's no substitute for guts.
-Paul Bear Bryant

How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.
-Lou Holtz

My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging
-Hank Aaron

The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.
-Joe Paterno

It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.
-Muhammad Ali

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.
-Vince Lombardi

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.
-Michael Jordan

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
-John Wooden

If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to beat.
-Herschel Walker

The minute you start talking about what you're going to do if you lose, you have lost.
-George Shultz

Perhaps the single most important element in mastering the techniques and tactics of racing is experience. But once you have the fundamentals, acquiring the experience is a matter of time.
-Greg LeMond

To succeed...You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.
-Tony Dorsett

Set your goals high, and don’t stop till you get there.
-Bo Jackson

The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination
-Tommy Lasorda

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
-Coach Darrel Royal

If you can believe it, the mind can achieve it.
-Ronnie Lott

The principle is competing against yourself. It's about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.
-Steve Young

Ain't no chance if you don’t take it.
-Guy Clark

You need to play with supreme confidence, or else you'll lose again, and then losing becomes a habit.
-Joe Paterno

You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional.
-Joe Paterno

Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary.
-Ray Knight

To be prepared is half the victory.
-Miguel Cervantes

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.
-Vidal Sassoon

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear not absence of fear.
-Mark Twain

Before you can win a game, you have to not lose it.
-Chuck Noll, ex-Pittsburgh Steelers Coach

When you're are playing for the national championship, it's not a matter of life or death. It’s more important than that.
-Duffy Daugherty

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
-Vincent T. Lombardi

My thoughts before a big race are usually pretty simple. I tell myself: Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win....Channel your energy. Focus.
-Carl Lewis

The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can't do.
-Dennis Waitley

There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either IN or you’re OUT. There is no such thing as life in-between.
-Pat Riley

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
-John Wooden

I'll always be Number 1 to myself.
-Moses Malone

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.
-Thomas Jefferson

You learn you can do your best even when its hard, even when you're tired and maybe hurting a little bit. It feels good to show some courage.
-Joe Namath

If you don't do what’s best for your body, you're the one who comes up on the short end.
-Julius Erving

If you set a goal for yourself and are able to achieve it, you have won your race. Your goal can be to come in first, to improve your performance, or just finish the race its up to you.
-Dave Scott, Triathlete

I've always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn’t have a chance to win.
-Arnold Palmer

Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
-Will Rogers

I will always be someone who wants to do better than others. I love competition.
-Jean-Claude Killy

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
-Samuel Johnson

Other people may not have had high expectations for me... but I had high expectations for myself.
-Shannon Miller

I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability.
-Bruce Jenner

He who stops being better stops being good.

-Oliver Cromwell

Your opponent, in the end, is never really the player on the other side of the net, or the swimmer in the next lane, or the team on the other side of the field, or even the bar you must high-jump. Your opponent is yourself, your negative internal voices, your level of determination.

If you can't accept losing, you can't win.

- Vince Lombardi

Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

Sports Do Not Build Character...They Reveal It

- John Wooden

All right Mister, let me tell you what winning means you're willing to go longer, work harder, give more than anyone else.

- Vince Lombardi

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

- Mahatma Gandhi

The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur. - Vince Lombardi (1913-1970) US football coach

If you don't make a total commitment to whatever you're doing, then you start looking to bail out the first time the boat starts leaking. It's tough enough getting that boat to shore with everybody rowing, let alone when a guy stands up and starts putting his jacket on.

- Lou Holtz, College football coach College football coach

Make the present good, and the past will take care of itself.
-- Knute Rockne

If you are going to be a champion, you must be willing to pay a greater price.
-- Bud Wilkinson

Success is about having, excellence is about being. Success is about having money and fame, but excellence is being the best you can be.
-- Mike Ditka

The Six W's: Work will win when wishing won't.
-- Todd Blackledge

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.
-- Vince Lombardi

You can't make a great play unless you do it first in practice.
-- Chuck Noll

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way.
-- Satchel Paige

Things that hurt, instruct.
-- Benjamin Franklin

It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports. What is tough, is being good every day.
-- Willie Mays

Success isn't something that just happens - success is learned, success is practiced and then it is shared.
-- Sparky Anderson

Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period.
-- Lou Holtz

"I've never known anybody to achieve anything without overcoming adversity."
---Lou Holtz

"Victory isn't defined by wins or losses. It is defined by effort. If you can truthfully say, 'I did the best I could, I gave everything I had,' then you're a winner."
---Wolfgang Schadler

"A gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you're not enough without it, you'll never be enough with it."
---Irv Blitzer (John Candy), Cool Runnings

"An athlete is a normal person with the gift of an undying passion to be the best and achieve greatness."
---Amanda Ring

"It doesn't take talent to hustle."
---H. Jackson Brown

"One bout doesn't make a champion. One win or one loss isn't reflective of an entire career...Champions aren't made or lost with one battle."
---Kelly Williams

"The difference between a good athlete and a top athlete is the top athlete will do the mundane things when nobody's looking."
---Susan True

"It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks."
---Bob Richards

"Don't be content with average because average is just as close to the bottom as it is to the top."
---Danielle Ballentine

"Part of being a champ is acting like a champ. You have to learn how to win and not run away when you lose. Everyone has bad stretches and real successes. Either way, you have to be careful not to lose your confidence or get too confident."
---Nancy Kerrigan

"The difference is almost all mental. The top players just hate to lose. I think that's the difference. A champion hates to lose even more than she loves to win."
---Chris Evert

"Every time you compete, try harder to improve on your last performance. Give nothing short of your very best effort."
---Elgin Baylor

"In life, we choose whether or not we want to be a winner or a loser. To be a winner, we must devote time and hard work. To be a loser you do nothing, and that's exactly what you will get, nothing."
---Patrick Boles

"Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the keys to my destiny."
---Elain Maxwell

"When anyone tells me I can't do anything...I'm just not listening anymore."
---Florence Griffith-Joyner

"The ones who want to achieve and win championships motivate themselves."
---Mike Ditka

"Play like you're in first, but train like you're in second."
---Unknown

"If you never lose then you can never appreciate the victories."
---Laura Twitchell

"Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can."
---Richard Bach

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start now and make a brand new ending."
---Carl Bard

"On the road to life there are many paths... some twist, some turn, some dip, some curve. As long as you keep your focus, your destination is obtainable."
---Brenda Good

"Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible."
---Doug Larson

"When faced with a challenge, look for a way, not a way out."
---David Weatherford

"You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down."
---Mary Pickford

"Aim not for what you are, but for what you could be."
---Lucas Hellmer

"Dreams take time, patience, sustained effort, a willingness to fail, if they are ever to be anything more than dreams."
---Bryan Linkoski

"If you haven't got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?"
---Jeffrey Mayer

"One of the things that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people's expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expectations, and those are the only things I really care about."
---Tiger Woods

"Don't let the low times keep you down. Learn from them and reach for the high times."
---David Wiemers

"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort."
---Jesse Owens

"Square your shoulders to the world, be not the kind to quit; It's not the load that weighs you down but the way you carry it."
---Unknown

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."
---Mark Twain

"The biggest mistake you can make is continually fearing you will make one."
---Unknown

"The more effort you put into something, the more you get in return."
---Dwight Rivera

"If you want to accomplish anything in life, you can't just sit back and hope it will happen. You've got to make it happen."
---Chuck Norris

"The higher we reach, the longer and harder we have to try."
---Unknown

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
---Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nothing will work unless you do"---John Wooden

Katarina Witt
When I go out on the ice, I just think about my skating. I forget it is a competition

Steve Ballesteros
To give yourself the best possible chance of playing to your potential, you must prepare for every eventuality. That means practice.

Arnold Palmer
I've always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt that I didn't have a chance to win.

Arthur Ashe
The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.

Sugar Ray Robinson
I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.

Isiah Thomas
I've always believed not matter how many shots I miss, I'm going to make the next one.

John Wooden
Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should accomplish with your ability.

Jerry West
You can't get much done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good.

Lance Armstrong
I didn't just jump back on the bike and win. There were a lot of ups and downs, good results and bad results, but this time I didn't let the lows get to me.

Wayne Gretzky
You'll miss 100% of the shots you never take.

Michael Jordan
I've failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.

Paul Coffey
Nobody's a natural. You work hard to get good and then work hard to get better.

Muhammed Ali
Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: A desire, a dream, a vision.

Charles O. Finley
Sweat plus sacrifice equals success.

Pat Riley
There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either in or out. There's no such thing as a life in-between.

When I was young, I never wanted to leave the court until I got things exactly correct. My dream was to become a pro.
-- Larry Bird

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best.
-- Tim Duncan

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication just like any pro sport. Especially for beach volleyball you don't have to be tall or as fast as other sports. You just have to have the skills.
-- Misty May

If you are going to be a champion, you must be willing to pay a greater price.
-- Bud Wilkinson

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
-- Source Unknown