Setbacks

            Anytime you have a goal that you are trying to accomplish you can be guaranteed one thing, you will have setbacks, you will have failures. The difference between successful people and those that aren't is the manner in which they view these bumps in the road. I've always been one to view them as tests to see how badly I really want something. I know that the more difficult the journey is the greater the reward will be in the end. Of course, it's difficult not to be discouraged when everything seems like it is working against you, trust me I know. But, dust yourself off and get back to work and keep grinding till you get there.

            My first professional fight, which was in Guadalajara, Mexico, I had taken it on about two weeks notice against a local guy who already had a record of 30-1. He had just recently lost his first pro fight and I was being brought out there as a tune up, I assumed, but that's another story all together. About a week before the fight I was sparring and smashed my shin so badly that I couldn't even walk. If I even touched it, I almost dropped to the floor in agony. Backing out of the fight was never even a question that ever entered into my mind. I've always been the type of person that as long as I'm breathing then I'm fighting. Even if someone has to pick me up and prop me up against the ring post then I'm still going to go in there and give it everything that I have. Most people in the gym looked at me as if I was crazy for even considering still fighting. “How the hell are you going to fight if you can't even walk?” they would say. “Just watch me”, I’d reply.

            It's all too easy to have these setbacks completely derail us, and who would blame you? But that's the problem. Most wouldn't blame you, but do you want to be like most? When it all comes down to it, you are going to be the one looking back on your life and living with your decisions regardless of what we choose to do, or not to do. Would it have been smarter to cancel the fight and wait till I was healthy, ya maybe. But where do you draw the line? What level of a setback do you chose to overcome or chose to let slow you down? Well that's all on you. All's I know is when you have something you want more than anything, something you believe in, something that you know that you were meant to do, you can't let anything, no matter what that may be, stand in your way.

            If you allow setbacks to derail you every time they happen, as they assuredly will, how will you ever find out how far you can truly go. Take a chance, push through the pain, and I guarantee you that you will be happy you did. Or just quit and go back to sitting on the couch.

-The end