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    “For me the joy of athletics has never resided in winning.  I derive just as much happiness from the process as from the results.  I don’t mind losing as long as I see improvement or I feel I’ve done as well as I possibly could.  If I lose, I just go back to the track and work some more.” ~ Jackie Joyner-Kersee

      “Often called the best woman soccer player in the world, Mia Hamm says she was always asked, ‘Mia, what is the most important thing for a soccer player to have?’  With no hesitation, she answered, ‘Mental toughness.’  And she didn’t mean some innate trait.  When eleven players want to knock you down, when you’re tired or injured, when the referees are against you, you can’t let any of it affect your focus.  How do you do that?  You have to learn how.  ‘It is,’ said Hamm, ‘one of the most difficult aspects of soccer and the one I struggle with every game and every practice.” ~ Carol Dweck, Mindset

        “Most often people believe that the ‘gift’ is the ability itself.  Yet what feeds it is that constant, endless curiosity and challenge seeking.” ~ Carol Dweck, Mindset

          “John Wooden, the legendary basketball coach, says you aren’t a failure until you start to blame.  What he means is that you can still be in the process of learning from your mistakes until you deny them.” ~ Carol Dweck, Mindset

            “When you enter a mindset, you enter a new world.  In one world – the world of fixed traits – success is about proving you’re smart or talented.  Validating yourself.  In the other – the world of changing qualities – it’s about stretching yourself to learn something new.  Developing yourself.  In one world, failure is about having a setback.  Getting a bad grade.  Losing a tournament.  Getting fired.  Getting rejected.  It means you’re not smart or talented.  In the other world, failure is about not rowing.  Not reaching for the things you value.  It means you’re not fulfilling your potential.  In one world, effort is a bad thing.  It, like failure, means you’re not smart or talented.  If you were, you wouldn’t need effort.  In the other world, effort is what makes you smart or talented.  You have a choice.  Mindsets are just beliefs.  They’re powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind.” ~ Carol Dweck, Mindset

              “The music went on and on, minute after minute, with astonishing variations, never once repeating itself, almost as though the bird were deliberately showing off its virtuosity.  Sometimes it stopped for a few seconds, spread out and resettled its wings, then swelled its speckled breast and again burst into song.  Winston watched it with a sort of vague reverence.  For whom, for what, was that bird singing?  No mate, no rival was watching it.  What made it sit at the edge of the lonely wood and pour its music into nothingness?” ~ George Orwell, 1984

                “Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.” ~ George Orwell, 1984