Dr. Jorge A. Valverde* Everybody has a purpose, a destiny. And each of us has to go through a process where we grow and mature.   Your character is who you are and what you do when nobody is watching you. And the key to develop your character is learning to be self-disciplined. Self-discipline is the ability to focus on what needs to be done at the right time and place with total commitment to excellence, whether or not it is convenient and regardless of the circumstances or obstacles you face. Self-discipline is possible because one has transcended beyond the moment, inspired by the clear vision of his purpose and those who support him unconditionally. To grow and mature you must change and shape your character. You must study your nature and you must challenge it with total determination in order to achieve excellence in every aspect of your life. If you don’t change beyond your nature, you are actually going backwards. Your nature is composed of your genetics, family, social environment, and cultural conditioning. Your genetic makeup carries with it the generational baggage, with many great aspects and many that are detrimental to your physical and psychological growth.  The same is true about your family; it can provide you with physical and psychological shelter but also can condition you with habits that will hold you back in your...

Dr. Jorge Valverde Most great champions developed the ability to push themselves to go through all the challenges they have to go through during their careers. And inner motivation is the main reason why they are able to do so. Inner motivation is the ability to draw from oneself all the physical and emotional energy necessary to face every challenge on the way to the achievement of a goal or dream. This inner drive is usually developed early in life due to the desire of a child to be like somebody else, a role model, in particular, when this desire is reinforced positively by those who are close to the child (family and coaches) without the imposition of expectations. The moment relatives or coaches make a forecast of what their children or players are capable of achieving, they are not only putting unnecessary pressure on them, but also are robbing them of the opportunity to discover their own potential, a powerful source of inner motivation. Pressure is produced because children/players will feel the need to meet that expectation imposed on them and they will feel like a failure if they don?t. By not discovering their own potential, children/players cannot create their own expectations and they cannot own their own goals and dreams. The following are some examples of imposed expectations: ?You are the total package.? ?With your talent, you...

Dr. Jorge Valverde Anytime we go where we have never been, or try something we have never done before, fear will be present. It will always stand between us and anything worth doing. But the good news is, each time we conquer it, we feel a surge of self-respect and gain a level of confidence we never had before. It is our choice! Fear materializes in our mind as a little voice that reminds us of the failures we experienced in the past and their negative consequences. And it warns us of what consequences we will face if we fail again, for instance: ?If I fail, my peers will think that I?m not good enough.? ?I am running out excuses for my failures and I am tired of telling my coach that I lost a close match again.? ?If I don?t do well in this tournament, I will not have a chance to go to the Nationals.? This little voice is perhaps the most powerful force in our mind. It is capable of triggering a reaction in our body that will impair our ability to move our feet; it can make our heart beat accelerate dramatically and increase our body tension; it can make our mouth go dry and impair our memory and our ability to think effectively; it can make us blink more frequently (which prevents us from...