Suc­cess is NOT the sole out­come of tal­ent and skills; equal­ly im­por­tant is hav­ing the right phi­los­o­phy and pas­sion to­ward achiev­ing iden­ti­fi­able tar­gets and goals. The same ap­plies in sport. Suc­cess­ful sports­women, sports­men, and coach­es have all used var­i­ous self-mo­ti­vat­ing max­ims in ad­di­tion to their tal­ents and skills to over­come chal­lenges and ob­sta­cles and stay ahead of the com­pe­ti­tion in their re­spec­tive sport­ing dis­ci­plines.

Here are some in­spir­ing say­ings from ath­letes and coach­es:

· Per­sis­tence can change fail­ure in­to ex­tra­or­di­nary achieve­ment. Matt Bion­di, Amer­i­can swim­mer, 11- time Olympic Cham­pi­on.

· Make sure your worst en­e­my doesn't live be­tween your own two ears. Laird Hamil­ton, Amer­i­can big-wave surfer.

· Set your goals high, and do not stop till you get there. Bo Jack­son, re­tired Amer­i­can base­ball and foot­ball play­er.

· If you fail to pre­pare, you're pre­pared to fail . Mark Spitz, 9-time Olympic cham­pi­on, swim­ming

· Cham­pi­ons keep play­ing un­til they get it right. Bil­lie Jean King, ten­nis play­er.

· You are nev­er re­al­ly play­ing an op­po­nent. You are play­ing your­self, your own high­est stan­dards, and when you reach your lim­its, that is re­al joy . Arthur Ashe, Ten­nis.

· You can't af­ford to live your life with re­grets. Shane Warne, Aus­tralian leg-spin­ner.

· With­out self-dis­ci­pline, suc­cess is im­pos­si­ble, pe­ri­od. Lou Holtz. Amer­i­can foot­ball coach.

· To un­cov­er your true po­ten­tial, you must first find your own lim­its, and then you have to have the courage to blow past them. Pi­cabo Street, alpine ski rac­er and Olympic gold medal­list.

· I hat­ed every minute of train­ing, but I said, "Don't quit. Suf­fer now and live the rest of your life as a cham­pi­on." Muham­mad Ali, for­mer World heavy­weight box­ing cham­pi­on.

· It ain't over till it's over. Yo­gi Berra was an Amer­i­can base­ball play­er and man­ag­er.

· Ex­cel­lence is the grad­ual re­sult of al­ways striv­ing to do bet­ter. Pat Ri­ley, for­mer NBA play­er and coach.

· I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my ca­reer. I've lost al­most 300 games. 26 times, I've been trust­ed to take the game-win­ning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I suc­ceed . Michael Jor­dan.

· Con­cen­tra­tion comes out of a com­bi­na­tion of con­fi­dence and hunger. Arnold Palmer, golfer.

· Nev­er give up! Fail­ure and re­jec­tion are on­ly the first step to suc­ceed­ing . Jim Val­vano is a for­mer bas­ket­ball play­er/coach.

· To win, you have to score one more goal than your op­po­nent. Jo­han Cruyff, Dutch foot­baller and coach.

· The strength of the team is each in­di­vid­ual mem­ber. The strength of each mem­ber is the team. Phil Jack­son, for­mer play­er, coach NBA.

· Ask not what your team­mates can do for you. Ask what you can do for your team­mates. Mag­ic John­son for­mer LA Lak­ers bas­ket­baller.

· If you are afraid of fail­ure, you don't de­serve to be suc­cess­ful! Charles Barkley, for­mer NBA play­er.

· Mon­ey does not guar­an­tee suc­cess. Jose Mour­in­ho, the 'spe­cial one.'

· Ob­sta­cles don't have to stop you. If you run in­to a wall, don't turn around and give up. Fig­ure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. Michael Jor­dan, bas­ket­ball great.

· A good hock­ey play­er plays where the puck is. A great hock­ey play­er plays where the puck is go­ing to be. Wayne Gret­zky, hock­ey icon.

· No mat­ter how good you get you can al­ways get bet­ter and that's the ex­cit­ing part. Tiger Woods, golfer.

· You can't put a lim­it on any­thing. The more you dream, the fur­ther you get. Michael Phelps, Olympic medal­list.

· In the end, it's ex­tra ef­fort that sep­a­rates a win­ner from sec­ond place. It takes de­sire, de­ter­mi­na­tion, dis­ci­pline, and self-sac­ri­fice. Put all these to­geth­er, and even if you don't win, how can you lose? Jesse Owens, 4-time gold medal­list, Berlin Olympics 1936.