Champions aren’t made in gyms, champions are made from something they have deep inside them — a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.

When you switch your focus from instant gratification toward long-term accomplishment, create a mental image of why you should reject the instant rewards and keep going — despite hardships, failures, sacrifices, and lack of compensation.
A detailed vision of your wished-for future will fuel your resolve, compensating for any weaknesses you might have or difficulties that might stand on your way toward success.
For example, I struggled with extreme shyness as a teenager. I set a goal to develop self-confidence and feel relaxed in all kinds of social settings. I was, and still am, an introverted lone wolf who needs solitude more than I need other people.
However, my will was strong. I knew I needed to make this change in order to stop limiting my personal growth, something I found and still find is one of my most important values. This deep desire kept me going, despite my personality being extremely unsuited to social settings.
Note that your deep desire doesn’t have to be about you. You’ve surely heard stories about people performing incredible feats of strength to rescue a victim of an accident. For example, in 2013 in Oregon, teenage sisters Hanna (age 16) and Haylee (age 14) lifted a 3,000-pound (1360 kg) tractor to save their father, who was pinned underneath it.

The mechanism that supports such impossible actions still baffles scientists.
We only know one thing for sure: under normal circumstances, Hanna and Haylee wouldn’t be able to lift a tractor. It was their will — their immense desire to save their father — that gave them superhuman strength.

If you’re struggling with a certain goal, think who could benefit from you achieving it. How could you improve somebody’s life — or perhaps even save a
life — thanks to persevering and accomplishing your objective?

You don’t get extreme talent, fame, or success without extreme actions.

It’s important to approach your goals in a sustainable way, thinking in terms of months, years, or decades instead of mere days or weeks. However, at the same time, taking extreme actions can pay handsome dividends, too.

Balancing between the extreme and more sustainable approach is a difficult art, but in essence it comes down to taking extreme actions during a relatively brief period of time, while ensuring that your actions are sustainable over the long term.

For example, when my first book became a bestseller, I stuck to a strict publication schedule to benefit from the gained momentum. I launched my second book (on which I had been working since I finished the first draft of my first book) a mere three weeks later. My third book went live in another two weeks, and my fourth was released three weeks after the previous one.

From there, I slowed down my pace, but I still managed to release at least four new books each year. In the short term, my actions were extreme. And precisely because of that, I was able to build a large following quickly. However, after an initial sprint, you need to slow down to go the distance—and that’s when I transitioned to a little less extreme approach, but one still exhibited by few authors.

Are you taking extreme actions to gain momentum and separate yourself from the ones who don’t have the self-discipline needed to push themselves hard for a short period of time? How can you intensify your efforts for a couple of weeks or months to maximize your results before transitioning to a more sustainable and less extreme approach?