Four Aspects of Passion: Interest, Practice, Purpose, and

Hope

We are still talking about Grit, and more specifically, the Passion piece of Grit. Passion is not just about loving your sport; it’s about sustaining that love over the long term by anchoring it to four key elements: interest, practice, purpose, and hope. Understanding and developing these can keep you motivated and committed, even during the hardest stretches of your journey.

Interest

To truly have grit, you must have a genuine interest in your sport. This is more than just enjoying the highlights; it’s finding joy in the day-to-day work. When you love what you do, the hours of training, the sacrifices, and the grind all feel more worthwhile. Interest fuels your willingness to stay engaged, which makes consistent effort much easier. Ask yourself: What is it about my sport that I truly love? Let that answer drive your motivation.

Practice

In the world of mastery, they call it deliberate practice. It’s not about mindlessly going through the motions; it’s about focused, intentional work on specific skills with feedback to guide your progress. The “10,000-hour rule” is often cited as a benchmark for mastery, and while the number isn’t a hard requirement, the concept is real: sustained, high-quality practice is essential. Just showing up isn’t enough; purposeful intent turns practice into progress.

Purpose

Purpose means finding a deeper meaning in your sport. Maybe it keeps you healthy, teaches you discipline, allows you to be part of a community, or helps you inspire others. When you connect what you do to something bigger than yourself, you’re far more likely to stay committed through tough times. Purpose adds weight to your effort and strengthens your “why.”

Hope

Hope is the belief that your hard work will lead to improvement, even when success feels far away. It’s staying optimistic and viewing setbacks as opportunities to learn instead of proof that you can’t succeed. Hope keeps your eyes on the long-term goal and gives you the resilience to keep going. When you believe in your ability to improve, you can endure the slow progress that often precedes breakthroughs.

By developing interest, practice, purpose, and hope, you build a passion that lasts. And when your passion endures, it fuels the perseverance side of grit — the combination that keeps you moving toward your biggest goals.

This is Mental Strength.

For Players

Do:

• Find and reconnect with the parts of your sport you truly enjoy

• Approach every practice with a clear purpose and specific skill to improve

Don’t:

• Train without a plan or feedback

• Let temporary boredom or frustration disconnect you from your long-term goals

For Parents

Do:

• Help your athlete discover why they love their sport

• Encourage them to see progress as a journey, not an overnight result

Don’t:

• Push them into a sport they have no genuine interest in

• Focus only on winning instead of learning and developing

For Coaches

Do:

• Build practice plans with clear objectives and measurable improvement

• Remind athletes of the bigger purpose behind their work

Don’t:

• Run practices on autopilot without targeted skill work

• Overlook the role of optimism and belief in sustaining performance