I cannot tell you how sick I’m becoming of seeing the same article over and over again about why I should quit my corporate job.
In a few weeks, I’m going to be 29 (cue that scene from New Girl with Schimdt shouting “29!!”) — where did my 20’s go? But more importantly as I approach my magical 29th year, what have I learnt and was it just as they said it would be?
He who is not courageous enough to take risks, will accomplish nothing in life
People will say many things about Ali, but one thing that cannot be denied is his profound influence upon our society and staying true to himself. He was never just an athlete, he transcended his sporting background and much like Bruce Lee before him, he flowed out into many parts of our culture.
In the mountains of amazing things that Ali had done, the one thing that I learnt from him and still resonates with me to this day and will do for the rest of my life is the art of self-belief.
If you want to achieve it, you got to believe it
It always seemed that Ali had no fear, he was cocky, he was brash and was a master if not a grandmaster in mental warfare and all of this stemmed from his unwavering self-belief. Not for a second, would he consider that he was beatable, he never worried about what his opponent was doing and only focused on what he had to do to get the job done.
He’s a proven example that believing in yourself can take you to amazing heights and hit the potential you know you have, despite what the critics say. Even recently there has been another great example of self-believe from the sporting arena, with another prizefighter becoming a world champion after 10 years grinding. Those who follow the UFC, will know I refer to the newly crowned middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who despite all the detractors and fighting at only 2 weeks notice, pulled out the biggest win and one of the most amazing upsets in the sports history. When interviewed after the fight and asked what kept him going after 10yrs, he responded “I always believed, I always knew I would be a world champion”.
If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it – then I can achieve it
You can call this the Ali effect, but the amazing powers of ones mentality in the pursuit of accomplishing their dreams cannot be denied. Ali had this in abundance and has left the world with many lessons on how to be great, but also to do it your way.
If you think about it, he was a philosopher without even knowing it, his quotes are infamous and like Bruce Lee’s famous excepts they will be used to inspire for generations to come.
A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted wasted 30 years of his life
Although the world has lost a great character and innovator, we should reflect on what he taught us and make sure we use those learnings to make our own lives amazing. He will always be the greatest and he showed us all, how great we can be too.
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So the sad news was released earlier last week, that 2016 has taken yet another creative visionary from us. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will know that I’m referring to the legendary Prince.
For frequent followers of this blog, you will know that I’m a big combat sports fan and in particular a fan of the UFC.
The athlete that shines the brightest within this promotion and the sport overall , is none other than the Irish phenomenon – Conor McGregor.
