I like boxing. Not watching the real deal mind you, but boxing as in a form of exercise training. I don’t get to do it very often these days but when I’ve done it in the past, I’ve really enjoyed it. Perhaps it’s the attention I give the focus pads, perhaps its repeating the patterns the trainer gives me, perhaps it’s having the avenue to vent some aggressive energy that can get trapped in my body! Whatever it is, I like it.
I also like the analogy from boxing of “3, 2, 1, You’re Out!”
If you don’t get up after you take a ‘hit’, it becomes your ‘3 2 1 you’re out’ moment. Your life’s direction changes in the moment that you don’t get up.
I had to ‘get up’ after I once took a ‘professional hit’. I got slammed publicly in a newspaper about an upcoming presentation…before I did the gig! (could have been worse, I could have got slammed after I did the gig!). In any case, it knocked my confidence and my belief in my presentation for a six.
Truth is, people will criticise. There will always be people who will tear you down just because they can or because it suits their agenda and it’s usually regardless of the damage or consequences it may have for the other person.
However, if there is one thing I learnt from growing through my adult years with a schizophrenic, chronic alcoholic family member, it’s that you cannot change another person’s reality or their perception of you, you can only change your response to them.
This is the gift I gave myself from the experience of getting slammed both professionally and personally last year – ‘get in, get the gift and get out’. Some people will always be quick to judge and criticise, what you do with that is up to you. If you choose to value the opinion you have of yourself more than the opinion of others, then you will not get up, you will have a ‘3, 2, 1, you’re out’ moment in your life. Instead, get in, get the gift, get out of the pain, and then you will get on with your life!
It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, only how many times you get up!
Love to hear your thoughts.
