Motivation is the foundation stone of all athletic efforts and accomplishments. Without a sheer desire and determination to improve your sports performances, all of the other mental factors are meaningless. The become the best athlete, you must be motivated to do what it takes to maximize your ability and achieve the desired goals. Motivation can be simply defined as the ability to initiate and persist at a task. To perform your best, you must have the zeal to continually improve your efforts, until and unless you do not achieve your goals. While you practice, you will face endless amount of fatigue, boredom, pain and the desire to do other things. Getting distracted would be very easy for you. This is the reason why motivation is so important in sports. It will impact everything that influences your sprots performance, for example, physical conditioning, technical and tactical training, mental preparation and general lifestyle. Further, motivation is the only contributor to sprots performance, over which you have complete control. There are three things that affect how well you perform. The first and foremost factor is your ability that includes physical, technical, tactical and mental capabilities. Second factor is the difficulty of the competition. The term difficulty here refers to the ability of the opponent, crowd weather and other such external factors to influence your performance. You have no control over these factors. Finally the third factor is motivation, which is completely under your control. Motivation will directly impact the level of success that you ultimately achieve. If you are highly motivated to improve your performances, then you will put in the time and effort necessary to raise your game. Eventually, you will succeed in your career. Reports say that athletes, who consistently fail to achieve their targets, are generally diagnosed with several signs flow motivation. Some of the major signs or symptoms include a lack of desire to practice as much as you should, less than hundred percent efforts in training, skipping training sessions and investing in efforts that are inconsistent with your goals. So just beware of such signs and concentrate on prime motivation, which begins with direction, decision and dedication. It is very important to consider the different direction you can go in your sport you will have three choice, stop participating completely, continue at your current level, or strive to be the best athlete you can be. With these three choices of direction, you must select one direction in which to go. Your choices will dictate the amount of time and effort you will put into your sprot and how good an athlete you will ultimately become. Once you have made your decision. You must dedicate yourself to it.