Excellence does not result from some special inner quality of the athlete.

Talent, gift, natural ability—are all common names for this quality. These terms are used to mystify the essentially mundane processes of big achievements—keeping us away from a realistic analysis of the actual factors creating high performances, and protecting us from a sense of responsibility for our own outcomes.

So where does excellence—consistent superiority of performance—come from?

Excellence Requires Qualitative Differentiation—Not Quantitative

It involves doing things differently than before, but not necessarily doing more.

Technique, attitude and discipline—yet very small quantitative differences in performance may be paired with huge qualitative differences.

These qualitative differences are what distinguish good from excellent.

The Mundanity of Excellence

If we sit and watch a movie of the life of olympic golden-medal athletes, we'd fall asleep.

Why? Because they aren't doing anything exciting. They are doing the same, qualitative things, every single day. It's all mundane.

Excellence is accomplished through taking actions, ordinary in themselves, performed consistently and carefully, habitualized, compounded together, added up over time.