You might not be a boxer — but you must be a fighter.
If you want to lose weight, you have to fight through those moments of hunger.
If you want to get great grades this semester, you have to fight through those moments of psychological fatigue.
If you want to be a world-class athlete, you have to fight through those moments of physical fatigue.
If you want to be a superstar salesperson, you have to fight through those moments of rejection and dejection.
How do you do this??? Here’s some world-class advice from a world-class boxing trainer named Teddy Atlas.
At a certain point, if he’s going to get to the top of the boxing profession, a fighter has to learn the difference between the truth and a lie.
The lie is thinking that submission is an acceptable option.
THE TRUTH IS THAT IF YOU GIVE UP, AFTERWARD YOU’LL REALIZE THAT ANY OF THOSE PUNCHES THAT YOU THOUGHT YOU COULDN’T DEAL WITH, OR THOSE ROUGH MOMENTS YOU DIDN’T THINK YOU COULD MAKE IT THROUGH, WERE JUST MOMENTS.
Enduring them is not nearly as tough as having to deal with the next day and the next month and the next year, knowing that you quit, that you failed, that you submitted.
It’s a trainer’s job to make a fighter understand that difference, that the parts of a fight that are urgent last only seconds; seconds during which you have to stave off the convenient excuse — “I’m too tired” or “I hurt too much” or “I can’t do this” or even simply “I’m not going to deal with this.”
Sometimes it just comes down to not floating — just being there and understanding that if you give in, you’ll hurt more tomorrow. Maybe there is no more important lesson to learn from a boxer than that.
The above passage was taken from “Atlas” by Teddy Atlas, published by HarperCollins.
This is a great book!!!
FOR MORE ON THE SAME TOPIC: Listen to the song “The Boxer” by Paul Simon.
Call Success Hotline (973) 743-4690.
Fight though it,
Rob Gilbert
