Focus on the big things
After watching the movie Air and really enjoying it, I wanted to continue on the Michael Jordan theme and rewatch The Last Dance. It may be the best sports documentary series I've watched. I'd love to hear of some more recommendations.
Jordan's unparalleled drive and motivation are incredibly inspiring. Those qualities stem from a simple goal - to be the best basketball player ever.
Most of us don't have goals like that. But even for the goals we do, we tend to conflate being world class with having an obsession about details: the specific gear or equipment, the particular set of warm-ups.
What drives ninety-nine percent of performance is identifying the big holes in one's training and plugging them. Put the focus on the major things that drive towards the goal and getting them right.
In fact, a reliance on particular things to be just-so, counterintuitively, increases fragility. I've certainly felt that myself - on days when the "good squat rack" isn't available, my workout is not as good.
Jordan's greatness, as far as I can tell, came from a relentless focus on patching the big holes in his game, such as gaining muscle so that he could take on the physically aggressive Detroit Pistons.