LUCK

I wrote this a few years back. This definitely applies to fighting but I know it happens in every field and walk of life…

If I hear one more person tell me how lucky I am, I just might lose it! Yes, I am very fortunate and blessed to be where I am at today and to be able to do what I love, but luck had absolutely zero to do with it. 

When I gave up my entire way of life to go after my dreams, when I had to face all of my fears, uncertainty and all of my demons. When I had to put every question and doubt I had into the back of my mind and dive into the abyss of the unknown, how lucky was I?...And that was just the first day! 

It's easy to see someone who has 'made it', or in a place that you wish you were and think, “Damn, they are so lucky. I wish I could do that.” but rarely do we see all the sacrifices and failures that they had to go through. Not only that we are not seeing both sides of the equation. We might see the successes but not all the awful things that come with it. We pick and choose pieces of someone’s life and think how much we would love it. No, you wouldn’t! You’d a rude awakening, hate it and wouldn’t be able to handle it.  

Almost anytime you’re at a fight you’ll hear, “That guys a bum, I could beat that fool no problem”, at least once. Or, they will sit there and critique or coach from their seats while drinking a beer and eating nachos. All you are seeing is a fraction of a fraction of a moment in time and from an extremely skewed perspective at that. 

You didn't see me killing myself all day and all night, in the gym for years on end. You didn't see me sacrificing all of my time with family and loved ones. You didn't see me at home alone while everyone else was out partying, 'having a life'. You didn't see me living in the gym for years, surrounded at night by thousands of cockroaches and bugs. Freezing to death in the winters and dying of heat stroke in the summers all while everyone would constantly ask me, “When are you going to give this stupid dream up and get a real job?” You didn't see me get stopped my first fight and then having all of those fears and doubts, that had kept me from ever doing this, come crashing down on me and having to face them all over again. You didn't see the countless injuries, the losses, the failures. You didn’t see numerous times I went into a fight half dead from sickness or so injured that anyone else would have pulled out long before. You didn’t see all the fights I took on a days’ notice with people who outweighed me by thirty pounds or had more experience than I could ever hope for. You didn’t see all the fights I took in other sports, that I’d never even trained in, just to stay active. You didn’t see, even with all that, when I couldn’t get a fight even if I offered to pay. You didn't see when everything was starting to come together and Muay Thai was finally gaining the momentum I knew it one day would only to then blow my knee out not knowing if I'd ever see the inside of a ring again. You didn't see the pain and torture I went through, not only in order to get back in there but to do it as quickly as I did. You didn't see every doubt and fear that went through my mind walking into that first fight back. And you definitely don't see the fact that I still deal with all these same doubts and fears to this day. All you see is the end result and equate it to ‘luck’. 

Keep telling yourself it's luck, keep telling yourself they're overrate, keep telling yourself you could do it too “if only.” Keeping getting online, writing your blogs and critiquing the ones that are actually out there doing it. No one is stopping you. The internet is flooded with experts and tough guys, all sitting behind the safety of their keyboards. Do you want to talk about it or be about it? Do you want to find out how difficult it really is, find out if you have what it takes...or do you want to sit your lazy ass on the couch and assume it's all luck? 

I have yet to meet one successful person that got that way by being 'lucky’. We all have certain areas in our lives where we are more fortunate than others, just as we also all have those areas where we are less. We all have our own weaknesses and strengths. We have gifts in one area but are also completely lacking in others.  

 No matter what you are facing there are those out there who have it just as bad as you do, if not worse, and still made it. They had the exact same obstacles to overcome yet took them as motivation to push that much further, rather than excuses as to why they just couldn’t make it.  

It’s not a question of what’s in your way; it's only a question of whether or not you want it and what you’re going to do about it.

“Face your fears, live your dreams” 

-El Presidente'