Let us face it. There is a certain magic to the way Manny Pacquiao moves in the boxing ring. There is a particular poetry to how Floyd Mayweather Jr. glides and moves in the boxing ring. There is a certain art to boxing that is hard to miss. It can definitely be a very exciting sport. After all, when you see two well-trained powerful men go at it, you cannot help but feel a nice surge of adrenaline.
However, besides the sports value of boxing as a spectator, it is worth noting that engaging in boxing as a sport can pay off tremendously in many other areas of your life. I am not just talking about being able to beat somebody at a competitive sport. I am not only talking about gaining a lot of accolades and praise from people who you love and respect. Those are definitely possible but the bigger prize is, as far as I am concerned, involve your transformation as a person. If you have ever felt stuck in your life, or if you have felt at any point that you are capable of achieving so much more, but you feel that you are unable to reach those heights, boxing may be the answer.
Here are seven ways boxing can help you become a better person. Now, this does not mean that you go and box with no protection. There are certain types of boxing gyms you can go to that minimize the damage of boxing. Still, I highly recommend that you take up boxing for these seven reasons.
Boxing does not Respect Feelings
Let me clue you in on a very harsh secret: The world does not give a damn about your feelings. Seriously. It could not care less about what you wanted to do, what you could have done, what you should have done. It does not matter what your motivations are.
You know what matters? The world only looks at whether you threw the accurate punch at the opportune time to create the right results. In other words, all it cares about are your actions. It does not care about the fact that in your mind, you were thinking of waking up at 3:00 AM, but you decided to sleep because it was too hard. It could not care less about that kind of stuff. All it cares about is what you actually do.
Now, what does this have to do with success? Well, let me tell you. Your boss is not going to give a damn what was going on with your family life. All he cares about is whether you produce the amount of work expected from you. The bank does not give a rat’s ass about all the personal drama you are going through. All it cares about is whether you made the payment on time. Do you see how this works?
It is all objective and with boxing, you are forced to throw that punch. You are forced to create a result. Otherwise, you are going to lose. That is why boxing goes beyond feelings. It is all about results.
Boxing does not Care about Your Potential
How many times have you met people who have a great potential for singing and a considerable potential for art and a considerable potential for making money? The problem is most of those people do not end up making anything out of themselves because let us face it; the world is littered, in fact, I would argue it is full of people with potential.
However, the world does not give a damn about potential. All it cares about is whether you turn that potential into something real. Boxing does not care about your potential. You might be the next Manny Pacquiao, but unless you enter the ring, and you put in the work to practice day after day, week after week, month after month, you would not amount to much of anything regardless of how many people you impress with your potential. The world cares about results, and results can only be unlocked through effort. See the difference here?
There is a big difference between potential and effort. Boxing rewards effort. There are many people with the same potential as Manny Pacquiao. They could be the next Pacquiao, but without the effort to unlock that potential, they are nothing. Always remember this.
Going Toe to Toe Physically Prepares You to Confront Your Fears
If you are having a tough time overcoming your fears because your parents were not very encouraging in the past, or if you had a bad boss or an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend who truly destroyed your self-esteem, well you can get over those fears by simply stepping into the ring. There is nothing like going toe to toe with somebody who is trying to hit you really hard to help you confront your fears, because in those precious few seconds as you throw punch after punch, and you try to dodge your opponentfs punches, you are confronting your fears head on. You are not running away. You are not making excuses. You are not making justifications. You are staring your fears right in the eye and looking for an opportunity to throw that punch to knock your fears back. Now, if that does not liberate you from your personal fears, I do not know what will.
It does not Matter how Hard You Get Hit, What Matters is if you can Take It
One of the funniest misconceptions about boxing is that a lot of people think that a good boxer knows how to punch solidly. The assumption being that if you were able to punch hard, you would be able to overcome and beat your opponent. I can easily see where people get this idea; however, the real secret to boxing is not how hard you punch.
What matters is if you can take a hit because if you can take a hit, you live until the next second when you can then get an opportunity to throw that punch that may knock out your opponent. In other words, it is all about the next second, but unfortunately most people focus on how hard they get hit. They focus on how tough their lives are, and how oppressive tings become.
It is no surprise that a lot of people end up quitting in whatever it is that they are doing in life because when they look at the difficulty, and they focus only on it, it becomes bigger and bigger until they feel powerless. In boxing, you do not worry about getting hit. In fact, you assume that you will get hit. What you are focusing on is whether you can take it so you can launch a counterpunch.
The Best Counterpunches are Preceded by Hard Blows
I want you to take a look at a typical Manny Pacquiao or a Mayweather performance tape. If you notice that when they get punched, especially Mayweather, he is actually positioning himself for a counterpunch. That is where the magic happens, and a lot of people are clueless regarding this. They think that when they get hit hard by life, basically all their opportunities dry up. When they suffer a setback, they automatically believe that there is no hope.
Well, boxing teaches us that even if you get hit really hard, it actually can set up the perfect counterpunch that can help you win. So, do not focus on how hard you get hit. Instead, focus on
how you are positioned given your setback to get better opportunities to rise back up and otherwise set yourself up for eventual victory.
You Cannot Lose if You do not Quit
A lot of boxers are so physically conditioned that they do not physically quit. In terms of physical punishment, they can take quite a lot. The problem is when they get mentally beaten by their opponent, their mind tells their body to quit. That is how you know you have broken a boxer. The lesson this teaches us is that you really cannot lose if you do not quit. If you do not quit, you are still in the game. You still have a chance in the next round to land that punch that can turn the tide of the fight.
A Knockout is Only as Close as You Make It
One of the most powerful knockouts in Manny Pacquaio’s career happened when he fought Marquez for a rematch. If you study the tape, it shows that Marquez simply got an opportunity when Pacquiao let down his guard. Prior to that point, Pacquiao was actually winning. What does this teach you about life?
Well, it may seem that life is beating you down. It may seem that the chips are down, and the deck is stacked against you, and everything is going wrong. However, if you know where to look, and if you have the right attitude, it may be you who throws a knockout punch.
There are many stories of multimillionaires that had to declare bankruptcy only to bounce back richer and more powerful than before. You have to remember that life is your opponent. Life is unfair; nevertheless, if you have a boxerfs mindset, you may be able to throw a knockout punch right after you got pummeled and crushed. It may seem like you got punished really hard, but it only takes a small window of opportunity to turn what would otherwise seem like a certain defeat into an amazing and stunning victory. The choice is yours.