Into the Lion's Mouth

I was watching Israel Adesanya interview Teddy Atlas to talk about Fury vs. Ngannou, as well as the mental part of fighting, which Teddy always says is 75% of the battle (which I agree). He speaks of confidence being something you might or might not have; you can't actually know until you have to tap the reserves and check what's really there, ala. trials and tribulations that bring out the best in you. He also mentioned how confidence, or lack thereof, can have you taking the necessary risks or unnecessarily risking what you have because you don't feel that you can win anyways. Sometimes, confidence is taking a risk against the odds, but other times, confidence can be staying poised and controlled, not letting fear push you to self-sabotage.

Teddy told the story of Peter McNeeley, who fought Mike Tyson on his return to the ring from a 3 year prison sentence. McNeeley fought, at least many would say, bravely, openly willing to exchange with Tyson and "stare the beast in the face" in doing so. Atlas does not agree; he believed it was a reckless, fruitless approach meant to cover up McNeeley's lack of belief in himself with a seemingly valiant effort. McNeeley truly believed he was going to lose all along but wanted to take brownie points for courage instead of playing smart and sticking to a plan that would give him an optimal chance for winning. He wanted to "be eaten by the lion and get it over with" instead of digging deep, controlling his mind and emotions to see whether he could topple one of the best to ever do it.

In that explanation, I saw myself in game, especially early on, making "mistakes" that were really not mistakes, just stupid moves that gave me an excuse to believe that "I can't get these types of girls" or "I'll never be good enough to succeed". A true mistake is part of the learning curve; these "mistakes" were designed to reinforce my negative beliefs and get me unshackled from the responsibility of success and growth. Just like Peter McNeeley, I wanted to "be eaten and eaten fast" because it is what I always expected would happen. Self-sabotage is real, it can be difficult to detect and correct but it all starts with our minds. When we monitor our thought, speech, and action, and adopt an ideal for our self (the person we would like to be), we can then take inventory of what parts of our personality cannot serve us in reaching this goal. Our ideal would shed light and expose the blockages, defeatism, lack of self-belief that remain as obstacles to overcome. Returning to the previous example, if McNeeley might have held an ideal of himself as a champion, capable of beating anyone in the world, and stuck doggedly to this vision, it is possible that we would talking about him today in a different context. However, let us learn from not only our mistakes but those of others and remember that our minds make us. We would do well to nurture only the best so that we become only our best.