Good question, Jim. I'm not sure I've got a good answer. But it starts with being honest with yourself in assessing where you're at. It starts with a measure of humility that is both willing to learn, to acknowledge you don't know everything already and even accept criticism as a positive. It starts with being hungry. How much do you really want to succeed? What are you prepared to do, to give up? It also starts with being uncompromising in the sense good enough is never good enough.
In the real world everybody has a different amount of time and resources they can commit to the effort. That doesn't necessarily mean the player with less of both isn't serious--it simply means it requires more patience and likely coming to terms with lower expectations. However, under any circumstances the goal ought to be becoming the best player you can be.
