An experienced competitor explains why mental attitude matters more than physical strength in sustained performance. Over fifteen competitions, they've learned to manage negative self-talk, depression, and the urge to quit through venting, classical music, and family support. Routine and experience make mental lows easier to anticipate and survive.
How much do you think, how important do you think it is in terms of having your head in the game? Like you talked about, he had a great positive attitude. Do you think that's important?
It's everything, you know. Like I told you in the one video we did, you know, it's not about who can lift heavy. You know, you've been lifting heavy, you've been pushing it. Everybody can do that. Most people can go out there. But the mental part of it is huge. So what What you just said is everything.
Yeah.
It's everything.
That's what I've come to see. It's because the mental stuff takes you through the dry time. The mental stuff takes you through injury. The mental stuff takes you through when everybody else is sleeping in at 4 AM and you've gotta get up and go again. The mental stuff takes you to bed at 8 PM so you can get up at 4 AM. Because it's all gotta be in here. 'Cause nothing's gonna come to you. You set any sort of goal, nothing's gonna come to you easily. You've gotta keep on pushing through. And you know, I know with what we're looking at doing, I mean, just to think it's every meal, every mouthful, every day for 18 months, it wears me out thinking about that, you know. But if you go into it tied on as opposed to, no, no, this is what the endgame is, then it sharpens and it focuses up a little bit.
And that's just the thing, you're gonna have setbacks, you're gonna have injuries, you're gonna have bad days, you're gonna have worse days than bad days. You're gonna have family things that come up.
Yeah, they're tough sometimes.
You know, you're gonna have family, you're gonna have things where you just get sick of it. And to be honest with you, I've done over 15 competitions and there was no time that I would tell myself what I'm doing. Why I'm doing this to myself. You know, it's like, this is stupid. You know, I shouldn't be doing this. Like, why I'm pushing myself? You know, that's the little negative thing that talks to you like, just stop, just go eat pizza, man. have ice cream, you know. And, and, um, I said there's no— every single time that happened to me, when I had completely a crash, mental crash, meltdown, or whatever you want to call it, where, where I just said, uh, I don't want to do this, this is ridiculous, you know.
Yeah.
But, you know, then yes, you do, you do have those thoughts, but for some reason I still got up next day, 5, did my cardio, prepared my chicken, Or my wife prepared my chicken. You gotta love that.
So, you know, it's like we nearly need to be able to have a whine and complain to ourselves, knowing full well that we're gonna get up and go again. But it's just like we've got to vent it out.
Yeah, it's tough and you get sick of it and you get, you know, I won't even lie to you, there was depression times that you go through.
Really?
I remember in one of the shows, honestly, I just want to lay down and stare into one dot on the ceiling. So I'm not the only guy.
Yeah.
And just stare at the dot and think about my next meal. That's it, you know. And honestly, it was like that. There was a time that, you know, I could tell you in 2004 I competed, that I never listened to classic music.
Yeah.
You know.
Yeah.
But that's all I listened to. It just— you get it, there's such weird stages, you know. I just— I would just go home because I was going to college at the time, living with my parents actually. I just come, go in my room and just put the classic music and just lay down and not do nothing. Yeah, you know, it just— there's phases. And luckily, being experienced now, you know, I, I, I do it better.
You can see it coming.
I have a family, I have kids. I know that I can't just lock myself in a room all day. At least it's fight time. Yeah, you know, but at least it's fight time in El Marroquín. But everybody Goes through that and you just gotta understand that it's just the practice make you feel, make you better. I know the competitors out there, some professional or non-professional that compete at 50, 60 shows and you see those guys and they don't look like they even got it. They just got used to it.
Yeah.
You get trained to go through those things. First few shows are the hardest.
