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Motivation Quote by Steve Waugh

"You've got to have dreams to keep you going"

About this Quote

In Steve Waugh's mouth, "You've got to have dreams to keep you going" doesn't land as a poster slogan; it lands like a training rule. Waugh came up in a sporting culture that prized stoicism and output, where you were expected to absorb pressure, play hurt, and treat doubt like a private weakness. So the line isn't about dreamy optimism. It's about endurance engineering: a mental fuel source that outlasts form slumps, selection anxiety, injury, and the slow grind of tours that blur into each other.

The phrasing matters. "Got to" is obligation, not inspiration. Dreams are framed as equipment, not decoration. And "keep you going" is deliberately modest. He's not promising glory or self-actualization; he's describing the bare mechanics of staying in motion when motivation runs dry. That subtext fits Waugh's reputation for late-game grit and a career defined less by flash than by stubborn accumulation. In high-performance sport, talent gets you noticed, but monotony decides who lasts. Dreams function here as a private narrative that makes repetition meaningful.

Contextually, it's also a message aimed at younger players and fans raised on highlights. Waugh is pointing behind the montage: the unseen hours, the long middle, the stretches where progress is invisible. Dreams, in that ecosystem, aren't childish. They're strategic. They give you a future tense to live inside when the present tense is brutal.

Quote Details

TopicMotivational
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Waugh, Steve. (2026, January 16). You've got to have dreams to keep you going. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/youve-got-to-have-dreams-to-keep-you-going-104098/

Chicago Style
Waugh, Steve. "You've got to have dreams to keep you going." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/youve-got-to-have-dreams-to-keep-you-going-104098/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"You've got to have dreams to keep you going." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/youve-got-to-have-dreams-to-keep-you-going-104098/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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You Have Got to Have Dreams to Keep You Going - Steve Waugh Quote
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About the Author

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Steve Waugh (born June 2, 1965) is a Athlete from Australia.

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