Train Yourself for Success

Written by - 11 Comments
Categories: self improvement

Ever seen a great champion boxer like Manny Pacquiao? With his speed, agility and power, he has conquered lots of other great boxers of the twenty first century. In between fights, he keeps his training regime and intensifies it when another fight approaches.

Just like a boxer, we, too come face to face with many opponents in the arena of life—problems and difficulties. The bad news is, we don’t really know when our bouts with these opponents occur—no posters and promotional TV commercials; no pre-fight Press Conference and weigh in to make sure that we measure up to our opponent; and there is no Pay Per View coverage.

Here are several reasons why you should train yourself for success like a champion boxer!

You don’t practice in the arena, that’s where your skills and your abilities are evaluated. This also means that you don’t practice solving problems and developing yourself when problems occur, you prepare yourself to face them long before you actually face them.

Talent is good but training is even better. Back in college, one of my classmates in Political Science did not bring any textbook or notebook in our classes; he just listened and participated in discussions. What I didn’t understand was how he became a magna cum laude! Apparently, he was gifted with a great memory and analytical skills. In short, he was talented.

If you are talented, you probably need less preparation and training time in facing life’s challenges. But for people who are endowed with talent, training and learning becomes even important.

Avoid the lazy person’s maxim: “If it ain’t broken, why fix it?” Why wait for your roof to leak in the rainy season when you can fix it right away.

Training enables you to gain intuition and reflexes. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, said that artists, athletes and anyone who wants to be successful, need 10,000 hours of practice to become really great. With constant practice and training, you hone your body, your mind and your heart and gain the intuition and reflexes of a champion. Same thing is true in life.

Without training, you will mess up. Without training, you will not be able to anticipate how your enemy will hit you. You will trip at that hurdle. Your knees will buckle before you hit the marathon’s finish line. You will lose control of your race car after the first lap. With training, you lower the likelihood of these accidents and you become fitter and more capable of finishing the race.

Winners train. If you want to win, train yourself for it. You may be a lucky person and you can win a race, or overcome a problem at first try. But if you do not train, your victory may be like a one-time lottery win, which you cannot capitalize on over the long run.

Keep in mind that training is borne out of discipline and perseverance. Even if you encounter some setbacks in your training regime, if you keep at it and persevere, you will soon see results in your life and when problems come, you will be like the champion boxer who stands tall and fights until the final round is over and you’re proclaimed as the champion!

About the contributor:

Mighty works with a non-profit organization in the Philippines, which provides leadership development opportunities for young people. He blogs at www.TransformationalLeadershipHQ.com

Want to feel great every single week? NOW YOU CAN!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
  • http://wwv.boostyourmotivation.co.uk Hani @ Boost Your Motivation

    I must say, you have written about success from a totally new perspective. I found it very interesting, and will have to read it a few times to allow what you said settle and digest.

    Thank you.

  • http://hanofharmony.com The Vizier

    Hi Mighty Rasing,

    Training ourselves for success begins during good times. The saying goes that to have peace, we must prepare for war. And to prepare for war, we must always keep ourselves in a state of readiness with constant drills. This is akin to your analogy of training for a boxing match.

    There is really no substitute for training and practice. The more we do something, the better we get at it. Only by doing so constantly will we be able to manage the changes that life brings. There is nothing surprising in this. We are merely familiar with what we need to do to manage a challenge as it arises.

    Thank you for sharing this lovely article! :)

    Irving the Vizier

  • http://blog.self-improvement-saga.com Nea | Self Improvement Saga

    What a motivating post! It’s so important to realize that success isn’t just something that falls in your lap. It’s the result of talent, effort, willpower and attitude.

  • http://www.transformationalleadershiphq.com Mighty

    @Hani: Thanks. :) I was watching a TV show about the training of Manny Pacquiao and got fascinated with his commitment to continuous training whoever his opponent will be.
    @Irving: Thanks man! Yeah, doing something over and over again (the right way, of course) is how we become experts.

    -Mighty

  • Pixels

    I love this article. Speaking of boxing there’s this funny one I read of a guy training in boxing:
    http://heoyeah.com/2011/03/14/not-in-the-face/

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com Editor, Pick The Brain

    Nice work, Mighty! Great first blog!

  • http://www.fredtracy.com Fred Tracy

    This is absolutely true. If you want to be good in anything, you need to practice, and practice hard. You can’t just expect talent to get you where you want to be. Hard work beats natural abilities any day.

    Hard work PLUS natural abilities.. now that’s scary. (Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan, etc.) Whew!

  • http://thecoachyouneed.com Vickie Roundtree

    I like your article, what I gleamed from it is the importance of learning what we need to learn much earlier in life and start the training from the onset. This is what I call a proactive approach to life instead of the reactive approach which most of us have learned and use. It’s like you’re constantly putting out fires and trust me firefighting over a longer period of time will wear you out when you haven’t been properly trained.

  • Chetan

    Nice article Mighty !. I would like to relate this to marathon. I am running in marathon just to keep my self fit and always wondering why most of the race is won by runners from African country and why we call them “Favorites”.

    Recently watched video about runners from Kenya and came to know that they do practice…practice..practice in all condition (Ignoring all the limation they have ).

    Chetan

  • Chetan
  • http://www.todayhaspower.com Rob

    This can be applied in so many areas. Golfers remove strokes from their game on the driving range. I read that book and a few more from Gladwell (love him). He attributes the success of many to the 10,000 hour rule. Including some that may have been considered ‘over night’ successes(like the Beatles).

    Live it LOUD!