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You see, the outcome of my next fight is not determined in the octagon. It’s determined in the weeks and months before the fight, when I’m getting ready for it.
the goal is to avoid mediocrity by being prepared to try something and either failing miserably or triumphing grandly.
Mediocrity, in other words, is about not trying.
pick a goal, make a realistic plan to reach that goal, work through each step of the plan, and repeat.
The present loses its power when pitted against fear.
I wasn’t always the strong one. Fear made me. It’s why I am in love with my own fear. Don’t misunderstand me: I don’t like fear, but I do love it, and there’s a major difference there.
“Fall down seven times, stand up eight.” This understanding extends to all things, by the way, but you only learn it by losing a few times.
At some point, especially in sport, someone’s going to test you and see what you’re made of.
It’s not always the strong that survive. It takes brains, guts, tolerance and forward thinking.
MMA is more than a fight, it’s a strategy sport.
I may love the dinosaurs and their stories, but I’m inspired by the cockroach: the ultimate adapter and the greatest survivor.
now, I was finding new, innovative ways of losing fights.
“Don’t ever quit anything until you’ve reached the end.”
Fear hates logic, and it puts blinders next to your eyes and thoughts and forces you to focus on one single thing—as long as that one thing isn’t the fear itself.
I realized at this moment that it takes fear to make a person courageous. And I like that, because courage says something about you.
because fear walks next to you everywhere in life.
fear’s purpose is ultimately good—that’s what people forget. Fear is designed to bring you to a safe place.
Don’t be a deer. Dumb deer die a depressing death.
If a person is unsure about who he is and what his life goals are, the fear takes over his body and does what it wants with it.
Because it’s from fighting—from doing—that you get your confidence back.
If you look at fear from an emotional perspective, it will drag you down into panic. But if you can look at it objectively, analytically, only then can you make it work for you. When you master this, you open new avenues to generate power and knowledge. You discover new ways of thinking. You learn that fear can be a natural ally, a homemade power source.
The key lesson here, to me, is that sometimes you don’t need to decide right then and there what’s going to happen. You need to understand that the world keeps turning and nobody needs to rush into any harsh decision or situation. It’s okay to do nothing sometimes.
There are risks and costs to a program of action, but they are far outweighed by the long-term risks and costs of comfortable inaction.’’
Standing still is never a good option. Not in the ring, and not in life outside the octagon either. When you stop moving, you’re done.
the only way forward in life is innovation. And innovation, born from true creativity, depends on movement.
I keep the white-belt mentality that I can learn from anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Without risk, though, there is no real reward;
If, in other words, is risk’s purgatory.
He can walk into my house at any time and it’s his house. My fridge is his fridge.
Nobody becomes great overnight. Nobody crams information if he wants to be able to use it over the long term.
“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I’ll remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.”
Don’t think of the mountain, think of the first thousand steps. Think of the low-hanging fruit.
“Matters of great concern should be treated lightly. Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.”
Martyrdom for me meant taking him to the threshold of pain without ever breaking anything.
the thing about carrying a brick is that it gets heavier and heavier with time.
I learned you have to let the trick work on you, and it takes time.
These people have no idea what the word spectacular means.
So genetics is good to those who combine it with a mental outlook aimed at understanding the growth potential in struggle, defeat and hunger.
The key is always being lined up with your opponent’s eyes, like you’re trying to stay on a level with a wave in the ocean.
Like he’s your prey.
His soul, all his energy, gone—poof!—just like that. In one connection.
Sleep will come later, but this you must face now.
“I shoot the puck at the net.”
“Hit and don’t get hit. That’s how you win a fight.”
It’s a straight line and it’s right in front of your eyes, so just follow it.
True power is generating force from all positions, in all situations.
It can take some time and you can go through some pretty bad moments, but at some point fear is going to get tired or overconfident, and you can take it down.
The Japanese translation of the word randori is “chaos-taking,” or “grasping freedom.”
A person can’t be good from the beginning. You have to go through the stages of learning,
Humility is the first rule of martial arts.
