The storyline of the movie Million Dollar Baby contains all the ingredients it takes to become a champion.

The girl in the movie had:

* The desire to learn and achieve

* The ability to train alone

* An understanding of her limitations

* The ability to identify quality in her sport

* Sincerity and dedication.

These are the qualities that all true champions of any sport possess. They are also the qualities that you should have when you are trying to maximise your level of fitness.

Let’s have a look at these winning qualities.

The desire to learn and achieve

This is something no trainer can teach you; it must come from within. Any coach will tell you that it is easy to train an athlete in the technical maneuvers of any sport, once that athlete has the desire to learn and achieve. This principle applies also to changing your body and increasing your level of fitness; you have got to focus on what you want your body to look like, and then know in your heart that you can accomplish these changes.

The ability to train alone

The Lance Armstrongs and Pete Samprases of the world all share one thing in common, and that is the ability to motivate themselves into such a mental state that they are capable of doing a workout on their own.

When you train alone, you do not only learn more about your sport, but, more importantly, you learn more about yourself. Training alone teaches you a lot about the art of self-motivation. You learn exactly how far you can push yourself beyond what you thought were your physical limitations.

Asha listens to instructions in cardio karate class.

Know your limitations

It is highly commendable that an athlete is capable of motivating himself to train alone, but you must also be humble enough to know that you don’t know everything, and that, to improve in your particular physical discipline, you will need the advice of people who have walked that path before you did.

In karate, the teacher is referred to as a sensei, but the word sensei has a much deeper meaning than simply “teacher.” It means one who has gone before; at that level, the reference is to someone who has walked the physical and mental path of the discipline before you.

The ability to identify quality

Whatever sport or physical activity you decide to engage in, you need to be able to identify and choose your sensei wisely. The girl in the movie was adamant that she wanted absolutely no-one other than Clint Eastwood’s character to train her.

You have to be able to make that soulful connection with your coach or trainer, and know that you can trust this person to take you along the path to enlightenment.

The coach or trainer will have a profound effect on your performance in your particular physical discipline. He is there to motivate you; and if you are already self-motivated, he acts like a turbo charger in a car, which gives you that extra boost.

Simone curls her bar while listening to instructions.

Be sincere and dedicated

Fame, money etc are all benefits you reap from being successful at a particular sport, but for most champions, it is not the main reason why they took up the sport in the first place.

Most champions initially took up their sport for the sheer love of the game; somewhere along the way, they realised that they could be very good at their sport, and may have decided to compete for money, and nothing is wrong with that. However, to be continuously successful at any physical discipline requires that you be sincere to yourself and dedicated to the game.

Being on an exercise programme is no different; you must develop a passion for training. For example, don’t take up biking because some of your friends are doing biking; that’s not sincerity. Do something because you like doing it—that’s sincerity. The old saying, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing well,” hits home every time. Make a commitment to your programme and stick to it.

I have always maintained that the greatest equaliser between rich people and poor people is exercise, because if the rich man wants to change his body and increase his level of fitness, he has to go out there and sweat just as hard as the poor man. Keep training.