A Mantra For You

Despite living in California for 35 years, I never got into any of that new age-y stuff. Crystals, chakras, holistic medicine, meditation, etc. Most all of it comes from from Eastern spiritualism, but it always came off as kind of corny to me in the west coast hippie context.

And despite being in the fitness industry, I was never a big motivational quote guy. Again, I don't have any issue with them at all and I know a lot of people find that stuff useful, I just never really found them personally meaningful

As I have learned and continue to learn more and more about boxing though, I am starting to come around a little. Pretty much since its inception, boxing coaches have taught their fighters how to visualize in a meditative state. Visualize their fight, visualize their opponent, and most important, visualize success. Mike Tyson has said many times that he was not born as Iron Mike. He was made into it by his trainer Cus D'amato. Cus took a chubby, scared, victimized teenager and turned him into a monster, the likes of which we have never seen. D'amato is also well known for his many motivational quotes and memorable one-liners, which many fighters live by.

Something that he did with Mike was have him repeat a mantra to himself every morning. It's just one sentence and takes 5 seconds to say to yourself but it was effective - "Every day, I get better in every way." But he would have Tyson repeat it over and over during his morning routine. Say it out loud, in his head, etc. The idea being to help Mike focus, concentrate, and prepare for success. Plus, it would stick in his head and later in the day, maybe during training when he was tired and wanted to quit, suddenly it would pop in - "Every day, I get better in every way" - and remind him to keep pushing. 

This can work for you too! Come up with your own morning mantra. Or you can use Cus D'amato's. Whatever it is, it needs to have meaning and resonance to you. A positive affirmation that relates to your goals. You could even have multiple mantras. Repeat it over and over while you are going through your own morning routine. Yeah, it might feel a little silly at first but try it! What do you have to lose? Maybe you will be able to better manifest some of your goals or at the very least, hear your own voice throughout the day and help stay on track. It can also be useful to help remind yourself what is truly important to you.

Here's one of those motivational quotes that I do find pretty valid - "The body achieves what the mind believes." You would be amazed at how much you can do through this form of confidence. Plenty of us do not naturally believe in ourselves or at least, believe we can do anything we want and achieve all of our goals. There is a part of our brain that will tell us why we can't do something, as opposed to why we can.  This is a natural, human response and keeps us from doing things like trying to fly by jumping off of a cliff. But it can work its way into our regular lives that may not always be useful. Coming up with these daily mantras is one way to change this. Start to build those positive, success-oriented brain muscles. Just like our other muscles, if we don't use the ones in our brain, they atrophy and shrink.

Speaking of muscles and strength, I also like to do visualization while I exercise and I am 100% sure that it helps me. Visualize moving like one of my favorite boxers or just simply that I am getting physically stronger with every movement. Do this especially when you are tired. All that tiredness you are feeling is just you getting stronger. All that sweat equals power. This may sound very simple, and it is, but many people do the opposite. As soon as they start to feel tired, they start thinking things like, "Boy, I am SO tired!", "I must be really out of shape!" and "I just don't have it today" and like they are generally being defeated by the workout. But it's the opposite! Turn this around and I bet you will not only feel better but do better. 

Boxing, like life, is very much a mental game. At the highest levels, many people have similar physical tools but what sets the great ones apart is the mental side. That's what gives them the edge to rise above the rest. You might not think of yourself like a Muhammad Ali or a Michael Jordan but if you truly visualize yourself like them doing a task, any task, I can pretty much guarantee that you will be better at it. So next time you walk into work, start banging on the table and yelling, "The champ is here!" Well, at least do this in your mind...