Are You A Fighter?

Fighters aren’t born. Fighters are created.

A fighter is created out of circumstance. He’s moulded from his ability to rise from the depths of despair. Chiselled from hardship and spawned from his ability to, no, his desire to push forward and never relent.

A fighter isn’t only found in the ring, or in the cage. A fighter can be found in your own home. My Mother is a fighter. My Nonna is a fighter. And my Dad is a fighter. My grandparents were fighters because they looked fear, despair, and hardship in the eye, and met it with determination, sacrifice, and even a smile.

An article entitled, “It’s time to Man-Up,” was supposed to be where these words are now. But I realized what “man-ing up” really is. It’s fighting.

The world is made up of people who fight for their beliefs, and fight against injustice. Who fight and claw to make their dreams become realities. The world is also filled with people who whine, cry, wallow in their own self-pity and weakness, letting life have it’s way with them. They accept defeat. Then feel sorry for themselves for losing.

Jack Dempsey. Fighter.

Life isn’t so much our opponent in this fight, rather, we are our own opponents. We either limit ourselves, or we make ourselves better. It’s when we realize that we have the power to win or lose this fight of will, courage, and mental fortitude, that we can create what we want out of our canvas, which is life.

Are you a fighter?

I don’t know if you are or if you aren’t. What I do know is that no one is always a fighter. We all have moments – or long stretches – where self-pity reigns and excuses fill our minds, clouding the reality that we have control over our thoughts and mood. Over our current situation, and our future one as well. I know that I’m a fighter. In the past I was even too much of a fighter, and it got me in to trouble.

But when faced with adversity I like to meet it head on. Are there times when I think about quitting? Yes. Everyone has those times. We have days when we feel pity for ourselves. When we look at the lives other’s lead and we wish we had some of the things that they have. But a fighter is able to recognize that the voice saying those things isn’t his true voice. It’s his weak voice. He is able to push that voice down, and hear the voice of the warrior he has within him. Pity is lost behind his fire. His will.

Excuses are something that we’re all going to have. I have them daily. You have them daily. But excuses aren’t real. We make them up so we don’t do what we need to do to be great. To be Legendary.

Arturo Gatti. Fighter.

A fighter knows that the last bell will soon ring.

Above this is a picture of Arturo Gatti, one of my favourite fighters of all time. A guy I grew up idolizing. He was a warrior in the purest sense of the word. There’s no such thing as a boring Gatti fight because he left everything he had in the ring. Everything. And now he’s gone.

One thing a fighter knows is that his time in that ring is limited. A fighter in life knows that his time in life is limited. He doesn’t know how long he has, but he knows that on the day that he dies, he wants to think that it was enough time. That he did what he set out to do. Loved how he wanted to love. Fought the fight he wanted to fight. And left a legacy that he’s proud of.

The worst taste a fighter can ever have in his mouth isn’t the taste of his own blood, for nothing great is accomplished without giving your all. It’s the taste of regret. A fighter in the ring won’t sleep for months if he loses knowing that he could have given just a little bit more. A fighter in life knows that’s a feeling he never wants to have in his departing days.

Rocky Marciano. Fighter.

A fighter sacrifices.

You can’t have it all in life. You can’t have drinks with your friends every night, and still get enough work done. You can’t eat crap and build a great, healthy, powerful body. You can’t sleep 10 hours a day and be as successful as you want to be – if you have any real ambition.

A fighter knows this. He knows that he’s going to go through a lot of pain, whether it’s in training, in the fight, or both, if he’s going to win. He knows he’s not going to be able to spend all the time with his family that he wants to because he’s doing this for them. He’s fighting for them. And if he’s going to win, he has to prepare more than his competition prepares.

A fighter sacrifices. He knows why he is doing what he’s doing. Often its because of something greater than money. That money will do something greater for the people he loves.

Muhammad Ali. Fighter.

A fighter can smell an excuse from a mile away and stop it in it’s tracks.

A fighter welcomes pain when he trains because he knows that means he’s getting better. He’s improving.

A fighter does what’s necessary to win. Hard as it may be. As painful as it may be, he does it.

A fighter fights with honour.

Joe Frazier. Fighter.

A fighter always knows he can win. 

Even when everyone else in his life thinks he’s going to lose. Thinks he’s not cut out for his career path or for the opponent he’s facing, he knows.

That is what separates a fighter from the rest of the world. He has faith in himself even when no one else does.

When no one else in the world has faith in you. Fight. Know that you really can achieve whatever you truly set your mind to.

Know that you will accomplish all that you deserve. Now it’s time to put the work in and earn it.

Now it’s time to fight…