Positive Mindset, Positive Results!
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” - Rocky Balboa
No truer words have ever been spoken and applies to everything in life: work, relationships, dreams and yes, even actually fighting. Working with fighters who are chasing a dream or just trying to be competitive in something other than grappling I deal with the full spectrum of issues that come with it. Fighting can register every feeling imaginable: scared, nervous, excited, happy, sad, and these emotions registers differently for each fighter. But the focus of this article isn’t to go over each emotion but rather this is a guide on how to help build mental fortitude to tackle the tasks you dare to take on when it comes to fighting.
Let’s talk levels. There are levels to the game of fighting and attributes that are required to level up. I have found what matters most in being successful as a fighter. The categories are as follows:
Mindset/Mental Health
Physical Abilities
Technical Application
Coachability
Discipline
Diet and Sleep
Mindset/Mental Health The military teaches every solider that your mind will give up long before your body. Our reactions to situations have been trained by the situations and lives we have lived up to this point. Hence while a young 18-year-old can join the military and be turned into a machine built for war and then on the other side you have the 80-year-old salty veteran who is set in his ways and isn’t going to change for anybody. Your mindset paves the way to success or failure. One of my favorite quotes goes something like this. “If it’s important enough you will find a way, if not you will find an excuse.” This is such a true statement! If I told you that if you showed up tomorrow morning on my front door step at 5am I would give you a million dollars would you be here? Of Course, you would! So really what this example shows is the lack of mindset to chase what is important to you because it can’t be achieved in a day. Anything worth having isn’t obtained through laziness or a quick return. So how can we change our mindset/mental health? Confidence comes from KNOWING that you are doing what you are supposed to be doing! Why in the pit of your stomach do you feel like you’re going to underperform come fight time? Or at your job? Or in your relationship? It’s because you know you’re failing to perform and give it all you got! I am going to give you 5 things that you can start doing RIGHT NOW to help change your life. It is up to you to wake up and consciously do them. 1. Take Extreme Ownership!
Look at everything in your life from a point of view that you are responsible for everything that happens to you. If you are responsible for everything that happens to you then you have the ability to change it. Check out Jocko Willink’s book Extreme Ownership. It is a great read on this.
2. Don’t Use Self Hate Dialog!
When you find yourself having a conversation with yourself about how you’re a piece of shit and not good enough you need to dissect what you’re feeling. You need to tell yourself if you’re not feeling confident what am I doing to feel this way? Address the issue and offer yourself solutions to get past this feeling. When the doubt and self hate talk creeps in you have to acknowledge you’re feeling a certain way and you then immediately go into problem solving mode. This will help you out almost daily.
3. Get Adequate Sleep.
Look at your goals and understand how many hours of sleep are enough to achieve what you’re trying to do. If you don’t get enough sleep you will wake up tired and irritable and that is good for absolutely no one! It is easy to hate yourself and refuse to take extreme ownership when you’re tired and can’t think clearly. Understand what your goal is and sleep accordingly to fulfill those goals.
4. We Eat To Live, Not Live To Eat.
American’s will love this one! We are a society of fat and lazy lard asses and we blame everyone and everything except our own lack of discipline and mindset. You do not live to eat! Food is a tool to reach goals and to live a healthy lifestyle. It isn’t a tool that makes anything in your life better when there is overindulgence and gluttony. When you overindulge you are literally creating the exact opposite of what we are trying to achieve with it. You can’t out train a bad diet and your body hates you when you don’t have enough discipline and a strong mindset to choose smart foods. Learn about your diet and what works to keep your mind healthy.
5. Stay Organized. One thing that helps me mentally is doing my best to stay organized. Schedule your days to ensure you’re staying on track even if it is down to the exact minute. There is nothing wrong with doing this! Some people may give you a weird look when you are acting like a time nazi but I promise you it isn’t about them. You will get more done than they ever will by staying organized. Ensure all aspects of your life are organized and the machine runs like a formula one race car. Keep your house organized as well and you won’t spend precious minutes running around and setting yourself up for a bad day. It will amaze you how good you feel when all your ducks are in a row and you’re not running around like a chicken with their head cut off. That is it guys! Super easy once you decide to make the conscious effort to do it. Grab life by the balls and submit it to your mindset and mental health. We become defeated when we lose sight of our goals and allow doubt to creep in. Doubt can’t creep in when you kick the shit out of it on the daily.
Stache Actual out.