It is all about hard work, the time preparing and how you perform on the day but not many teenagers have to use such a philosophy for two different spheres at almost the same time.
Yet Poland’s Ewa Swoboda is quite an exception.
This week, the European junior 100m champion first sat her final high-school certificate on Wednesday, which she passed with 75 percent.
Then she flew to St. Polten in Austria where on Thursday she proved why she is top of the class among the best young sprinters in Europe.
In finishing a narrow second behind South Africa’s Carina Horn (11.18), Swoboda, 18, ran the same time which broke the national junior record.
As significant it was that it put her fourth on the European Athletics’ senior rankings this year, behind the Netherlands’ European champion Dafne Schippers (10.83), Great Britain’s Desiree Henry (11.06) and Ivet Lalova-Collio (11.11), of Bulgaria.
There is no doubt Swoboda is some talent and she has an exciting few months ahead.
She could make a great impression at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam between 6-10 July and then it is the IAAF World U20 Championships in front of her own fans in Bydgoszcz from 19 July.
Diamond League races in Rome and Birmingham are also on the agenda for an athlete who topped the podium in style at last year’s European Athletics Junior Championships in Eskilstuna, where she triumphed in the 100m in 11.52 and won silver in the 4x100m relay.
Then this winter she increased her reputation indoors by breaking the world junior 60m record with 7.07m in Torun.
In her studies and on the track, Swoboda really is heading in the right direction.