Make Perfection the Goal

On Saturday, Randy Couture became the oldest fighter to win a bout in the UFC. At 46 years young, Couture is a former five-time champion and nothing less than a living legend in his sport.

Out of the 28 professional fights he has under his belt, 16 of them have been championship fights, either at heavyweight or light heavyweight.

Now fighting for the third time in five months, Couture submitted fellow UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman, 45, in the second round of their light-heavyweight showdown in the main event of UFC 109 on Saturday night.

After the bout, the former champ noted "I'm having a blast, I feel like I'm improving each and every time I get out here." At the age of 46, Couture claims to be in some of the best conditioned shape of his life and is proving that he can still improve in what be the most physically demanding sport of our day.

Former UCLA Coach John Wooden had a philosophy on conditioning: Improve a little every day and make perfection the goal. His method for improving conditioning included one painful demand -- each player, when reaching the point of exhaustion, was to push himself beyond. When this is done every day, top conditioning will be attained over time.

In order to see what you're capable of, you must be willing to push yourself to the limit and beyond - taking yourself outside of your comfort zone. Like Couture notes, the reward is feeling yourself improve each and every day.