Fighting your mind to fight for your life is challenging

Our minds are always challenging us when we have those conversations with ourselves, and two parts are ‘fighting’ about it.  That’s because our minds flip and change on a dime. Concentration can be lost immediately. Confidence can wane easily.

Fighting your mind is always a challenge because both viewpoints (or even three) conflict with each other, and decisions are hard to make. You end up with complacency, frozen in your thoughts, doubt, and/or procrastination.

Thoughts from a long-time member

I was talking to Bill, a long-time member of MINORSAN Self-Defense & Fitness (for at least 16 years), just after a KickAeroBix™ class. Bill was in our Martial Arts Program years ago, and fighting your mind came up in our conversation.

Our discussion was all about the fight at the Staples Center, between Rhonda Rousey (Venice, CA) and Cat Zingano (Colorado). Of course it was the most exciting fight on the card that night. (The fight card is the list of fights in the order of which they will appear, with the Title Fight holding the top position, the first fight of the night in the last spot.)

The bell rang and the fight started. Rousey locked up Zingano with an arm bar (Rousey being trained in Judo primarily) in the first 14 seconds of the fight, and won by submission. They weren’t quite fighting for life, but more fighting to win (almost synonymous). They certainly were using their minds to attempt to get ahead, or get the best of the other fighter.

Rousey had already won the fight

Bill watched the fight as it was happening. He said you could hear people in the audience, close to the microphones, making statements about the fight being over already (and it had not even begun).

It was all about Rousey’s look, her intention, and her commitment to win this fight. She was 100% mentally prepared. She was physically primed (that’s the easy part). The hard part is the mental state of mind. Both fighters were at 0 losses (zero).

Several people in the audience who were up close made the comments about the fight being over already. Bill could also see her face on TV. She was totally IN. Her eyes did not leave Zingano’s. Full 100% commitment.

Bruce Lee’s Quote

Bill’s comment to me was all about the power of our thinking and intentions, which cannot be overemphasized in how important this is in the outcome desired. What you think about, what you imagine, what you desire, and continue to focus on, you will achieve. Bruce Lee’s most famous quote from ‘Enter the Dragon,’ clearly his most famous movie before his untimely passing, is this:

“Don’t think, feel. It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.”

What’s this mean when your mind is fighting itself?

Master Lee’s quote goes on to tell the young martial artist to not ‘think,’ but to ‘feel‘ it. Just how do you feel anything? Simple, we all feel with our bodies. Our minds are only the messengers. Rousey’s vibration was not coming from her mind, it was her body that was speaking, which is exactly why it was her truth.

Physical training is about 10% of any game, competition, confrontation, bout, or interaction. It’s why we can tell when someone’s lying. Their body language gives them away. Rousey’s eyes were emanating her internal vibration.

Look at our professional sporting events (football, baseball, basketball, soccer, hockey, etc). Watching these teams win/lose is always a lesson in the power of the mind, and the players having to fight their minds. It becomes very clear when an entire team loses the mental confidence needed to win. Sometimes all it takes is one player doing one awesome move, and the confidence comes back. Their bodies suddenly wake up because their emotions switched up. Emotions live in the body.

Games are 90% mental, 10% physical skills. The same with fights. The same with life. You truly can win with your mind, and your mind can also cause you to lose. If your thinking isn’t in the right place, you can lose to everyone, including yourself.

Losing focus is where we lose

So when your focus is going the other way, what will you achieve? It’ll achieve exactly what you’re thinking. It doesn’t matter if it’s positive, negative, adverse, happy, joy-filled, challenging, sad, overwhelming, whatever. That is what will manifest in your life. And then some people will easily reinforce it with thoughts such as ‘See, that always happens to me.’ Or, ‘I told you that would happen.’ Or, ‘I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it.’

Then the ‘give up’ part happens. We think it isn’t possible because, well, ‘see what happened in the past?’ ‘That didn’t work, so I won’t try it again.’ And why ‘try’ anyway?

‘Try’ is a non-committed attempt at action. It’s easy to ‘try’ to do anything. It’s a way out, simply because it gives you one foot out the door already, before you have even begun. Trying is a half-xxsed attempt…at anything.

Was Rhonda Rousey ‘trying?’

Rhonda Rousey didn’t ‘try’ to win that fight. Nor did she ‘attempt’ to get Zingano into a submission, or ‘try’ the arm bar. She just did it. Her mind was already made up. Do you think Cat Zingano is going to ‘try’ to win her next fight? If she does, she will surely lose again. She knows she needs to up her mental game, each fight, every time. To say Zingano was disappointed is putting it mildly. Very mildly.

Next time you say you’ll try, your mind is fighting you

Instead of thinking about ‘trying’ something, stop and check in. What are you really saying to yourself? What is your body feeling? How are you still programming your mind? If you truly want a change to happen, STOP:

• trying
• giving yourself an ‘out’
• doubting yourself
• doing the same thing over and over
• listening to others
• letting others overpower you

Start thinking in the ‘yes,’ and program yourself with everything you have, in order to be successful. Every day imagine your positives. In fact, make it a goal for one week only. Say yes to:

• yourself
• health
• well-being
• body
• life
• spirit

Work on developing yourself every day, especially in every decision you make. Even say ‘yes’ in the face of your opponents. On a daily basis, you know who they are. No matter what they say to you, say ‘yes’ to what will make your life better. Be in, 100%. Fight for your right to live exactly how you want to live. Do it for a week. How will your week be different?

It could be the start of something BIG…huge.

Clara E Minor is the Owner and Master Instructor/Trainer of MINORSAN Self-Defense & Fitness. She teaches and continues to develop her Self-Defense Program, offers classes and a bootcamp for fitness & health-inspired people, and loves to teach people to kick butt in their lives, and go BIG. You can CONTACT her here.