When I answered the phone he said, "you're talking to the #1 guy in the country!" I was thrilled. He has been working hard for the past two years traveling and competing all around the country. Up to this point he had done very well. As of the beginning of the year he was the #2 guy in the rankings of the North American Sport Karate Association.



He has been working especially hard over the past 3-4 months to become the number one guy in the rankings. So I was glad to hear that he had achieved his goal. Now he has to continue to train hard and use the momentum that he has gathered to become the overall #1 guy in the end of year rankings.

I believe that he's going to earn that goal. William has tremendous physical talent and technique. His trip to the #1 ranking, however, will be achieved only by continuing to develop the right state of mind and by feeding himself the mental pictures of the #1 guy in the country.

He had been in Boston and I was expecting to receive the same phone call. He called that weekend and said that he had won 3rd place in the national meet. He also told me that he had started off like a house on fire but became tired as he came to the close of his performance.

Upon hearing that I suggested that he needed to make it a point to get some sleep at night and eat properly. I told him that I did not want to get anymore emails from him at 3am in the morning while he was still working on Karate business. I appreciate his energy and enthusiasm for his work but a guy has to rest too.

So after our staff meeting William and I went through our weekly workout and review session. We addressed the getting tired thing which I knew he had been working on with extra conditioning. I told him that I would like to see his performance 5 times in a row at full speed. I told him if he could do it 5 times that he would have no problem doing it once. I'm glad that it worked for him. It was nice to hear the joy in his voice telling me about his hard earned victory.

Here's a few thoughts that anyone reading this can learn from this 25 year old National Karate Champion

1. Be in it for the long haul. Continue to work on your goals even if things may not turn out right away.

2. Get your pictures right. See yourself with the goal already achieved and let your mind rap around that

3. Sweat lots. Work hard to achieve your goals

4. Ask for help. Seek out those who can give you the information that can help you achieve your dreams.

5. Be good to yourself. You can expect a lot, but don't beat yourself up if it doesn't happen exactly the way you expect that it should. It'll happen, it might not be the way you planned it

Best of luck in achieving your most special goals,

Fred Nicklaus