Journal Reflection 5Excellence is a characteristic that some people in this world have managed to achieve. This is apparently a fairly common phenomenon in today's world. We may not see this excellence in our everyday lives, but our world is full of excellent people, some being athletes or movie stars, others being scientists and business tycoons. All of these people have achieved what we can commonly call excellence, but they all took different paths to get to where they are today. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay I do not believe that there is a “common thread” that connects all the excellent people in our world. There are a considerable number of factors that contribute to what people do and end up with their lives; and these factors are different for every individual on the planet. To say that there is a common thread among all excellent people would be to say that anyone with that particular characteristic would be an excellent person. For example, many would say that motivation might be that common thread, but there are millions of highly motivated people in this world who have not and will never achieve “greatness.” To give a specific example, Ralph Nader has been running for president since 1992, but he has never won a presidential election. This proves that someone who has a strong drive or motivation for something may not achieve it. I also believe that every decision a person makes in their life will either lead them to greatness or not. That being said, if there was a common thread when it comes to excellence, it would mean that all excellent people would make the exact same choice in a given situation, which is simply not possible. Ericsson's notion of the main thread of chapter 1 seems to be a "deliberate practice." I believe that practice is a very important part of achieving excellence, but I always believe that there is no common thread, even practice. I believe there are people in this world who have a natural ability to learn certain skills. Some people are born with a higher IQ or athletic ability, leading them to be excellent with much less practice than someone without these advantages. The nature of excellence in sports would be the ability to become the world champion of a specific sport; and this is achieved through dedication, motivation, practice, athleticism, coaching and many other factors. All of these combined (along with other life experiences) will lead to excellence in athletics. If there is one element that is most important to achieving athletic excellence, I believe it is natural athleticism. Without the natural ability to be an athlete, all the training and determination in the world is completely useless. People born with natural athleticism have a huge head start over those born without it. Those born with this trait can often excel in multiple sports, perhaps not at international level in many sports but above average in some and international excellence in one or two. For example, Michael Jordan, perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time, can be considered a natural athlete. After his basketball career, Jordan was able to join a professional baseball team for over a year, a feat many baseball players never achieve...