> Point being, the life of a professional athlete in the making is (mostly) not glamorous or exciting, but rather a very narrow existence comprised of pure pers

> Point being, the life of a professional athlete in the making is (mostly) not glamorous or exciting, but rather a very narrow existence comprised of pure persistence and dedication to a small set of very specific movements and activities, repeated over and over. The author of the paper argues somewhat the opposite. It's true that there's a lot of persistence and endurance involved, but athletes _do enjoy_ doing that—making small improvements, finding better ways to do something. It's not unlike other pursuits. It would take a lot of dedication to become a grandmaster, but you won't become one if you didn't enjoy doing it every day to an extent.