PURPOSE!

"A soldier who only has legs, he gets tired." That was the response from a Chinese soldier in the 1930's when asked what kept the army marching for long stretches. It means that when a man has purpose (or in the case of the soldier why he's walking from point A to B) it gives him more strength or a boost. What effect does this have on weightlifting, or anything else for that matter? People work harder when they have a reason behind it. In Geoff Colvin's book Talent is Overrated he talks about deliberate practice or doing things with reason. How many times have you walked into the gym with a program you got from a magazine or online? You probably saw some results, but did you really know the reason behind those programs? Probably not.
Know where you want to go. Novices see letters, the good see words, while the best see meaning in those words. See the meaning behind the work you do.

23:1 Rule.

"It is a favorite belief of mine that no student ever attains very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him; it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required, that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction.", Educator Charles Kendall Adams. That is a fairly apt summation of the 23:1 rule. What are you doing outside of the gym to perform better inside the gym? 

I first heard of the 23:1 rule while attending my first CrossFit certification. The theory is that there are 24 hours in  a day. Most CrossFitters spend about one hour in the gym. That leaves 23 hours to screw up all the gains you made in that hour. It does no good to bust your tail in the gym and then go out and eat HoHo's (no matter how delicious they may be) and McDonald's for your meals.

If you know you have a weakness (like posture or adductors) work on that daily. My weakness is grip strength. I have a couple of choices on how to work this. I can either, 1) spend part of the "hour" (one my weightlifting days I might spend a lot more than one hour in the gym), or I can, 2) work on it throughout the day. I chose 2. I bought a grip device that I take to work and work on my grip strength throughout the day. Maybe your weakness is your posture. You can work that very easily. Sit up straight while you're at your desk. Don't have a desk job? Work on it while you drive (or commute if you don't drive). Don't make excuses not to, find reasons to. 

"Don't pray for an easy life. Work to be stronger men."

Watch What You're Doing

Technique, technique, technique! So important I said it thrice. Proper technique ensures efficiency, safety,  and proper imprinting on the nervous system. It would be very difficult for me to try to teach proper technique of the classic lifts on a blog, but I can tell you where to look and why.
Head position plays a vital role in proper technique and overall posture. Thrusting the head forward initiates forward momentum while throwing it backward initiates rearward movement. That helps us out a little in weightlifting, but how does it really effect movements? We teach a neutral head position in the starting positions (cue would be look at a spot on the ground four feet in front of you) because flexion of the neck (looking up at the ceiling say) causes a relaxation of the erector muscles of the back. Conversely, exaggerated extension  (looking down at your feet) might cause a arching of the lower back which, needless to say, would place the lifter at a bio-mechanically disadvantageous position. Placing the head in such a manner to facilitate the lumbar spine being in placed in a neutral position is ideal.
Perfecting the classical lifts (snatch, clean and jerk) are hard enough as it is, but the lifter must also focus on proper head  position at different stages of the lifts. Rotating the head can cause the spine to rotate. Titling the head too soon while pulling from the ground can cause the bar to fly too far away from the body. While looking up at the bar at the bottom position of the snatch or over-head-squat can cause the lifter to fall backward.
Watch what you're doing. Not really. "Action of the eyes is closely related to action of the head, so it is essential to facilitate correct body or limb posture by using the eyes to guide the head into position which is most appropriate for each stage of a given movement. Generally, the neutral spine position is maintained most easily if the eyes are looking almost directly ahead and fixed on a distant object." (Supertraining  by Verkoshansky and Siff)  Fix the eyes to keep the head neutral to keep the spine neutral.
A drill to help this (and a good drill overall) is to pick a spot on which to focus then close the eyes. This will also enable the lifter to have better awareness of where the body is in space at different stages of the lift.

Practice Makes Perfect

Visualization, mental readying, focusing call it what you like, but the relationship between mind and body cannot be ignored. We've probably all heard that old saying that "practice makes perfect" or "perfect practice makes perfect", but I submit to you that "Mental and physical practice makes perfect". Let's focus in on mental readying (which fits the discussion). If we want to get good at something we need to wrap our minds around it. No one was perfect the first time they tried something ( basketball for example). Through practice and watching "film" (either games on TV or in real life) we learned movement patterns from our favorite players. How many kids started hanging their tongues out after watching Michael Jordan do it? And not just that, but they studied his style of play and started to emulate his actions. We can do the same thing for weightlifting. In this day and age of the of the information superhighway it's easy to find video of your favorite weightlifter to watch. Watch their style, their movement, and their technique. Watch someone with a similar body style. It wouldn't be quite as effective for a superheavy weight to try to emulate the style of "Pocket Hercules". 

Become a student of the sport. Watch video and then replay that video in your head the next time you head to the gym. 

Watch it, think it, do it.