Hey guys this is Flave from Boxing Evolution here to give you the first of many many blog posts based around training tips, positive mental attitude and various others things that may help you succeed in your general day to day goals.
Now it has come to that time of year, all of us have just had a nice little holiday named ‘Christmas’ where we are bombarded with all sorts of things that can make us unfit and overweight to include mince pies, turkey and copious amounts of alcohol. Not only this, due to the fact that it is coming to the end of the year we proceed to indulge ourselves in these things to the extreme, proclaiming that its ‘Christmas’ therefore it is allowed and it will all be coming to an end on the fall of January 1st in what we term our ‘New years resolution’.
Needless to say a lot of us turn in to what can only be described to resemble ‘Jabba the Hut’ from ‘Star Wars,’ barely able to wobble off the our squalid pit of a sofa yet alone go down to the gym to get fit.
Despite intentions being great and noble, many of us do not manage to last very long or even start with our new years’ resolutions, the reason being I believe for one main reason…the lack of discipline!
The subject matter of this blog therefore is around the importance of discipline and why it is so necessary to succeed in life.
THE IMPORTANCE OF DISCIPLINE!
So the first thing I want to clarify here is what discipline actually is. As a child I always seemed to have the impression that discipline meant, ‘to do as your told’. Being the unruly youth that I was, who didn’t like being told what to do lead me to almost become pro-actively undisciplined, and to turn my nose up at any mention of the word.
However since my indoctrination into the noble art of boxing aged 17 (im 32 now) I have come to develop a completely different understanding of the ‘Discipline’. One which I believe to be the true meaning of the word.
A meaning which I think if more people understood would make a greater effort to become ‘disciplined’ in themselves.
Ok so for you guys I am going to define discipline as I actually see it. And because I like you guys, I am going to call discipline something slightly different to help you along your way. I am going to call it ‘self-discipline’.
So therefore my definition of self-discipline is:
‘the mental acuity to do something even though you may not like it, because you know it is in your best interest’
And you may quote that people as being said by Flave of Boxing Evolution. You know I just want a bit of credit there, thats all, cheers.
So anyway… yeh, the long and the short of the meaning of discipline is to do the things that are necessary to achieve your goals done thou you may not like doing them.
I would like to elaborate a bit more on the meaning and give you a bit depth by talking about the main attributes of discipline. I will use an analogy of a boxer as this is Boxing Evolution and I believe it will help to make it clearer.
These are firstly:
Acceptance of Pain and Problems, accepting the truth of a situation, and accepting that that is how it is. An example may be that you might not be as talented as another boxer, so you acknowledge and accept that fact and instead work harder on your fitness and skills to compensate.
Delayed gratification – this is the ability to be patient and wait for your reward, for example waiting till after your fight to eat the cream cake you have had your eye on in the supermarket, which will mean you will be able to enjoy it so much more. It is also learning to face problems as they arise rather than put them off and ignoring them hoping they will go away, ignoring problems is also a form instant gratification as it delays the pain.
Responsibility – accepting responsibility for your current life situation, not shifting blame onto anybody else, and realising that you are the only one who can change it. This is also the ability to realise when you are not responsible for certain situations so as not to be too hard on yourself.
Balance and harmony – not doing anything in the extreme, a little of everything. Plenty of exercise also requires plenty of rest. This can be hard for some people to do as they feel they need to keep pushing. A common problem for boxers is obsessive training disorder.
Annnddd last of all….
Persistence – sticking with what you are doing no matter what, seeing it through to the end.
Ok you may say, ‘fair enough, I understand the theory behind what you are saying there, but give me some practical examples’ so I say, ‘ok fine, if you wanna be like that, I will’
So here are some practical examples of why a boxer needs to be discipline.
Discipline is essential for a boxer because it,
- Makes him turn up at training sessions even thou he may rather go down the pub.
- Makes him continue training and pushing himself when the going gets tough. Makes him face the pain rather than just stopping and giving up.
- Enables him to face the fear of sparring stronger opponents in order to improve his skills. This gives him an understanding of courage and true strength or guts.
- Gives him the patience to develop his skills properly, and the persistence to continually develop them, seeing things through to the end.
- Makes him realise that how far he progresses is down to how much effort he puts in to his training.
- Enables him to take sufficient rest so that he recovers from his training.
- Enjoys the whole process as it is enabling him to achieve his goal of being a boxer. Being successful is more important than anything else.
And because this whole blog post is inspired by the Christmas holidays, I would like to add one last point to that last list. which I am hoping will hit home when I say it.
Discipline enables you to choose how you react when someone else offers you something that may lead you astray, for example a mince pie or to come out drinking, discipline enables you to say ‘no’.
Now if it is still not clear to you on why you need to be disciplined, because I am such a nice guy as you may already be thinking for yourselves by now, I am going to explain in more detail about why I think discipline is so important.
The first and most important thing that I realised about why to have discipline, and listen up because this is the key, not to be ignored, king of the ring important point about it,
DISCIPLINE IS 100% NECESSARY TO BE SUCCESFUL.
Yes I will say it again,
DISCIPLINE IS 100% NECESSARY TO BE SUCCESFUL.
And that is not just at boxing, it is in all aspects of your life, from business, social and family life.
If we take professional boxing as example, discipline not only matters when it comes to actually training for a fight, it also matters in areas such as press conferences, dealing with annoying promoters, or not frittering away your hard earned millions on 30 BMWS’ as one famous heavyweight boxer once did.
There are many potential pitfalls that await us on our road to success, and unless we have developed our ability to be disciplined by consciously intending to do so, we may not only possibly fall into these pitfalls but almost willingly jump into them headfirst!
So now that you have heard me preach to you about these things your probably feeling a bit annoyed at me right now and looking forward to me shutting up, but also thinking to yourself, ‘ok this guy makes it sound like it is so easy… Well in response to your lovely thought about me I will say this…
This is by no means an easy feat. If anything it is probably one of the most difficult things that has ever been faced by man to do. That is controlling his exacting discipline on his life.
Even I myself the ‘saintly’ one who is writing this blog post find it difficult to act with discipline all the time, I find myself making excuses as to why I can order that Dominoes pizza with extra chicken kickers and garlic bread on the side at the weekend. But I do strive to act with discipline when it counts.
I would like you to think of discipline not as a virtue but more of as a skill.
You have to actively work at it day by day. Its all starts with the intention to be disciplined. Once you have overcome that major MAJOR hurdle, the next step is actually DOING being disciplined.
For the newcomer its best to start off small. Someone wanting to get fit could commit to going for a jog 3 times a week and then gradually adding more things into it. Building discipline can even start with things as small as making the bed in the morning.
Before you know it you will be transforming your life by controlling how much you exercise, your diet, your temper and your bank account.
Face the pain first and the pleasure comes after with no downside.
Anyway thats’ me just about done now.
On a serious note though I would like to mention that overcoming and developing discipline is something that I have had to do myself. Therefore I am actually talking from experience and not just being an idealist. I know myself that if you try, you can and will make BIG changes happen in your life. There is a bit more info about me on the website www.boxingevolution.com if you are interested.
How Boxing Evolution can help you.
If you enjoyed what you have read and would like to get more actively involved please check out the great range of services available at the Boxing Evolution gym in Maidenhead. The gym has been designed to create an environment perfect for physical training and psychological development, helping you develop much needed life skills such as discipline.
Not only that taking up a sport such as boxing is perfect for developing all the facets required to be successful. Boxing gives a person real time feedback about how their lifestyle and actions affect their performance.
If you are not in the area to come to the gym you can also see more from Boxing Evolution by subscribing to our email list.
Great further reading on the subject of discipline is a book called ‘The road less travelled’ by Dr M. Scott Peck. This book played a massive part in shaping my thinking and is definately worth a read.
Take care guys and please in whatever you do in life…
B.E DISCIPLINED J