I think it is Jim Rohn who said that “Success leaves clues”. At times we study through the annals of history to find out what made the greats of the past successful. We study what they did, what structures they had and what disposition they built around themselves.

Learning From The Best

Once in a while, we are blessed to have the opportunity to listen to these people when they speak. When you listen to Mohammad Ali speak, you know that you would learn quite a lot about being a champion. Ali mentored so many people including the subject of our discussion, Mike Tyson.

History records the great exploits of Iron Mike Tyson. I was only a boy when Tyson at the tender age of 19 years became the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the world. And by the way, it had taken him only six years to achieve this. At the age of 13, he knew nothing about boxing, until of course he watched Ali and Ali spoke to him and other delinquent young boys.

Podcast

In August 2020, Tyson sat down with Joe Rogan for an interview on his podcast. It was a whole two hours of shedding light about his comeback into the ring. We now know that on November 28^th 2020, Tyson will be squaring it out with Roy Jones Jnr in an 8-round bout. The world is waiting, literally. I am sure it will be massive.

Recap

From that interview, I curated at least 19 powerful life nuggets that we can apply in life, especially if we aspire to be champions in our own respective niches.

#Nugget 1. Internal Fear Can Be Unfounded

#Nugget 2: Appreciate the Power of Starting Small

#Nugget 3: The Importance of Your People

#Nugget 4: Be Alert to Recognise the Moment to Confront Your Conditioning

#Nugget 5: Allow the pull of life to respond to your push

This is a “Before and After” photo of Mike Tyson. Shows how conditioned he is becoming.

#Nugget 6: There is a difference between “Conditioning” and “Being in Shape”

Especially if you are interested in becoming a champion, you will have to go with conditioning. Being in shape is a great thing that many people can easily attain by doing the bare minimum or just about the average with consistency.

However, a champion needs conditioning. This conditioning has a greater demand, a greater “why” and a greater focus that just being in shape. It is for competition, for making it, for transcending. It is not just for being in shape and staying fit.

A Champion Needs Conditioning

Anyone who is interested in becoming a champion in their own right must work with conditioning more than they do with getting in shape. Frankly, anyone can get in shape. But only champions get conditioned. This means that their faculties of the mind, the body and the spirit are in such a state that you recognize you are on mission, and not just “fulfilling all righteousness”.

Conditioning Has a Price To Pay

Tyson at some point shared with the world a video where he was working out in the boxing ring. He was on an absolute beast mode for a few seconds. People marvelled. I read about a particular boxer who retired that after watching that small video was challenged then and there to do 250 sit-ups!

But Tyson said that that small clip cost him days in bed recovering because he wasn’t conditioned. A champion is conditioned for war and to the champion, war is not something that happens in the distant horizon. It is something that happens daily. Now, that is what conditioning is.

#Lesson 6: To become a champion, get conditioned

Courtesy, Mike Tyson’s Instagram

#Nugget 7: Impossible is nothing to someone that tries

In the conversation with Joe Rogan, Tyson threw in words of wisdom every now and then. You could see that those words come directly from his experience as a champion. He said:

“Our limitations create the impossible”

Mike Tyson

You see, Mike Tyson is 54 years of age, attempting to rejoin a sport that made him a champ at 19! The odds are against him right now as compared to how they were back then. However, according to Tyson, those odds are our own limitations that we put on ourselves.

Impossible is nothing

The word “Impossible” stays as potent as death for as long as we see limitations. There is one thing thought that spoils the party of the impossible, and that is a try. Frankly, any human anywhere can try. However, we are all predisposed to drift along with life and accept our “fates”. For as long as that is the case, then impossibility is the only outcome we shall have.

You will be shocked when you give something a try.

#Lesson 7: Don’t say it is impossible if you are not giving it a try.

To be continued…