Successful people vs. Unsuccessful People - Which mentality are you?

Whenever a new student shows up at the gym, it's hard not to size them up and be curious where they are on the pecking order, and if they are better or worse than you in sparring.  Even though everyone is training under the same banner and technically on the same team, it's human nature to do so.

When I spar with someone and I'm in better shape, have more cardio or have more skill than them, it's easy to get an ego boost and reassurance that I'm making progress and i'm getting good at Muay Thai.  However, if  you secretly hope that you're better than everyone, it's a very negative mindset, that which will make you unsuccessful in the long run. I started hoping that people would be on the same level as me, that way we can both learn and grow together.  But I started to think, what would the mindset of a really successful person be?  If someone is a successful pro fighter with a lot of experience, they don't want to be the best person at their gym, they want high level sparring partners that can challenge them.

Here is a chart that really  hit home when I first saw it, I spent hours last night looking for it again and it finally came to me:

Sometimes it's easy to feel entitled, especially if you're a paying customer.  I expect things like a minimum of three rounds of pad work a day and the trainers not messing around too much and being focused on training and keeping track of rounds.  But I've realized that there's a fine line between minimum expectations and a sense of entitlement which is a negative mindset.  Through my blog, and the videos I make, I help promote the gyms I train at, and it would be easy for me to feel entitled to a discount, or some type of special treatment, but I don't and never expect it.  I never make videos or write posts with the entitlement mentality, I do it because I enjoy doing it, and often because I see there's a need for it.  For an example, all of the videos I made, the Phuket Top Team First Look, 13 coins, and KC Muay Thai gym tours, I only made because they didn't have one yet and I know it's something that guys back home trying to decide what gym to train at want to see, since it helps them decide where to train at.

So instead of feeling entitled, anytime someone does show appreciation for something I did for them, I show gratitude and this attitude has really helped me enjoy life.  The one thing I didn't like about Phuket was the drama between camps and the need to talk about people.  It really made the training camp experience a bit negative, which is why instead of staying there where I was comfortable I embraced changed and moved up to Chiang Mai.

The goal of this blog and the way I live my life in general has always been to stay on the left side of the "Successful People" habits as much as possible.  This is my journal, and where I come to share ideas and information.  I can also read back at old posts and see my own growth.  It anything, it keeps my accountable.  The reason why I jumped straight back into training two days ago as soon as I got over my flu, was because I didn't want to be one of those guys that talks about training and muay thai on forums all day while not training myself.

I've made a conscious effort this year to stop reading and participating in forums or reading comments people leave on youtube.  Most of them are 12 year old kids and post anonymously pretending they know more than they actually do, and what's worst is you have grown men that are on the right side of the negative unsuccessful mindset most likely because they are unhappy in their own lives.

Anyways, here's a video I recently found that amazed me.  She's only 14 and is basically just starting out her singing career.  She's really talented and has tons of potential, luckily the majority of the comments are positive, but there are those one or two negative ones, usually from guys that have an anonymous profile without any personal videos themselves that say negative things.



Unfortunately, and i'm willing to bet that when she looks through her comments it's not the 99 positive comments that she remembers, it's that one asshole that cut her down that she thinks about at night and makes her second guess herself.  What does that guy do it?  Maybe it's because he is unhappy in his own life and tries to make himself feel better by putting others down, whatever the reason I sincerely hope that in 2013, more and more people start living on the left side of the successful people column than on the right.  Success and happiness is an unlimited resource, everyone can have it and I would love everyone to succeed.

Good luck in your fight camp, daily life camp, or whatever you happen to be dedicating your life to at the moment.

Warm Regards,

Johnnny @ MyFightCamp.com