My old speed coach used always ask us one question.
"How many hours does it take to master a sport?"
He would always answer it with a number that seemed unreachable. But that's the point. You never stop putting in the hours.
It is easy to set goals. But the act of reaching them is the hardest part. You have to commit. You have to put in the time. Even if it means saying you will put in 1 million hours into it. Rule #1 in goal setting is to set a goal that is attainable. But don't be afraid to set one more goal that is just beyond your reach. Why would someone do that to themselves? The constant feeling of failure or impossibility? Because then there is always something to fight for in order to master your craft.
Let's take this girl, Karen Cheng. She set a goal to learn to dance in a year. She started with no rhythm and no background. But she did it anyways. And now she knows how do dance. Really well. Why? Because she practiced every day. Not just once a day, but every moment she had the chance.
As an athlete, I think about strength training all the time. I would lunge my way from my desk to the water cooler at work. Do calf raises at the bus stop. Tighten my core while brushing my teeth. It's not that hard if you don't think about it as work you do in a singular moment of the day. If you shift your focus from the work itself, to the goal in mind, imagine how quickly the time will go by.
So reach for that 1 million hours of practice. If my car can do 1 million miles, maybe it doesn't seem so far out of reach.