Aaron Donald Quotes

I have a rigid self-accountability. You have to work hard.

I think that in order to get better as an athlete and to see whatever kind of results you're after, you have to make goals. Whether you write them down or tell someone about them, it's important to set goals for yourself in order to achieve any kind of success.

When I write a goal down - and I truly write them down - it becomes a part of me. That's a contract that I sign with myself to say, 'I don't care what happens - I'm going to stay on this path. I'm going to try and see this through; I'm going to give it my best shot, my best effort.'

In order to get to where I want to be, I have to do the right things off the field, first.

At the end of the day, it's me who has to earn the right to play more.

No manager in the world gets good results all the time and you know there's people always ready to have a snipe. In fact I'm my own biggest critic, I really am. Because my own standards are so high, I criticise myself behind the scenes more than perhaps I should, according to people who know me well.

Every night on the court I give my all, and if I'm not giving 100 percent, I criticize myself.

The secrets of success are a good wife and a steady job. My wife told me.

You know, I think it's so ironic that we're calling hard work, striving for excellence, don't blame others, you know, don't give up, that we're calling these, quote, 'Chinese values,' 'cause I always thought of them as American values.

I want to wake up every day and feel that I'm training harder than my competitors, that I'm dieting harder, that I'm recovering better. That's what gives me confidence when I'm lining up on the blocks. I've never gone out to prove people wrong. I just want to be the best that I can possibly be.

I try to do my best.

Gather in your resources, rally all your faculties, marshal all your energies, focus all your capacities upon mastery of at least one field of endeavor.

You cheat yourself when you don't do what it is you're supposed to do. You have an obligation to learn everything that you can.

For me, I've learned that the best thing is to focus on the team you play for and yourself and what you need to do.

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.

Always do your best.

It makes you also realize, 'OK, I'm excited to play tennis, and I work really hard to be the best tennis player I think I can be,' but I don't waste my time on stupid stuff, you know what I mean.

My duty, what I have to do, is try my best in every training session, leave everything of me on the pitch. That's how I can go to bed at the end of the day and be happy with myself.

I found people that were willing to push me. I was like, 'These are my goals. I need you to get me here.' I don't need any excuses. I won't make any excuses. I'm over making excuses.

Basically take care of your game, and your game will speak for itself.

If I put a statement about being the best interviewer into the universe, I must now live up to it, or at least be held accountable for it. Either way, I'm going to work that much harder.

Honestly, it takes a lot of dedication and sacrifice. When I was trying to get better a couple years ago, I was not going out. I had a couple of people get mad at me. I wasn't going out and partying, I was just doing what I had to do to get better.

You have to work hard each day and try to figure out what's going on and try to get better each day.

Part of being an athlete is constantly striving for more. We're looking for perfection in a world where that doesn't exist. No matter what we do and what we accomplish or how we perform, we're always looking at areas we can improve upon.

I just focus on what I can do myself, which is work hard and try to compete with the teammates I have.