I've been actively and regularly physically training in all different levels of martial arts. I started off as a white belt training four or five days a week where my biggest goal in life, and especially my training, was to not get my lunch money taken at school. I had no desire or even idea that I would ever be using my martial art in a sports arena, and I never trained like I did, until I did. A few years later, I was training, not only to keep my lunch money at school, but also to win the tournaments that I was entering, so my training changed little bit, but not too much. Now fast-forward three years, now am I not only training to keep my lunch money, and win tournaments, now I was also training to try to win the golden gloves, now my training took a little more of an upturn. now it's five years later, and I'm training to win the all army tournament, where if I won, I would get a spot on the all army boxing team, my training, then took a big upturn. Now four or five years later, I'm the number one kickboxer in my weight class, and I'm training to win a world title. While my training wasn't really any harder than when I was in the army, there was definitely more on the line because I was married and had children and the fight meant more to me than any other in a lot of ways, but all things considered, at the end of the day it was just another fight.
I never fought for millions of dollars like some of my fighters do, but having three kids to support, and a mortgage, money was always somewhat a motivator for me, but it was definitely never my biggest motivator. Hating to lose, hating to disappoint my loved ones, were huge, but at the end of the day, I think my biggest motivator by far was the fact that I hated another man being able to beat me up.
Having another man beat me up was my biggest inspiration in my training. From my first loss as a preteen until my last loss as an adult, the feeling was the same. I felt embarrassment and shame. That shame usually didn't last very long since it was a sport, and I did win more than I lost, but still, every fight that you lose cuts like a knife.
I have not only been in fights where I meant the difference of a couple months rent and food, I have fought when there was a trophy, and the pride of knowing that I am the champion of my state, North America, or even the world. I have also Trained fighters where each fight meant millions of dollars, and their ability to secure their future. And I have also fought where there was only ego on the line, and I have also trained those multimillion dollar fighters way back when they're early amateur fights meant nothing more than a two dollar metal. From what I have felt personally, and what I have seen very closely upfront, myself, and the Champions that I have trained seem to put as much blood sweat, tears and emotion into their two dollar metal fights, and their multi million dollar world, title fights. I think that a large majority of the fighters you see on TV, fuck is hard for a two dollar metal as they will for a $25 million fight. A fighter is a fighter. They put every inch of their being into every single fight.
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