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By John Passaro on April 9, 2016 • ( Leave a comment )

6 MINUTES WRESTLING WITH LIFE

Book 1 of the “Every Breath Is Gold” Series

Get ready to laugh, cry, smile and think…

Twenty-six years ago, my mission in life was to win a New York State Wrestling Championship.

I committed myself to a lifestyle, I made the sacrifices, I put in the time, I starved myself, I even shaved my head.

I had the hunger, the desire, and the determination, but I came up short.

For many years, after I graduated it seemed like I got nothing out of my six years of total dedication to the sport. That the trade-off of what I gave and what I got in return to this sport was way out of whack.

I hated wrestling for it.

To put every ounce of your soul into achieving something and to get nothing out of it in return was beyond my comprehension and I just could not justify it in my head.

Until, I had adversity in my life.

And slowly but surely, I started realizing how much the sport of wrestling actually has given back to me.

Much more than I ever knew.

6 Minutes Wrestling with Life is much more than a wrestling book.

It is a book on life, love, loss and belief.

AGAIN

Book 2 of the “Every Breath Is Gold” Series

There are going to be many occasions where you are faced with giving up, where the normal person would not hold it against you for stopping, where almost everyone would give you a pat on the back for a valiant effort.

It is at that time that you have a choice to make, you could accept the alibi that is being thrown to you, or you can try “Again.”

The ability to keep going on when you think that you can’t go on anymore.

When you have given everything to achieving a goal and you come up short.

Your fight inside of you cannot be dictated by the amount of time left on the clock, or by the score, or by relying on getting good breaks over bad ones.

Your fight inside of you must be dictated by the outcome that you want to achieve.

It is recommended that you read 6 Minutes Wrestling with Life prior.

Your Soul Knows

Book 3 of the “Every Breath Is Gold” Series

I believe every experience we go through in life is to prepare us for what is to come in our lives.

To teach us the life lessons we need to know so we can best handle our ultimate test, somewhere in the future.

I believe that our lives are an accumulation of life lessons that can only be learned by personal experience, to be completely understood.

I believe the universe takes us on goals and missions in our lives we believe are the most important things to us at the time.

It does this to teach us lessons that we need to experience and learn, so we can successfully execute them when our real mission in life finally arrives.

I believe that if you really listen, your soul will talk to you.

And when it does…

Listen, Trust, Act

It is recommended that you read 6 Minutes Wrestling with Life & Again prior.

A Good Man

It has taken me all of my life to realize my goal in life is not to look successful to the world, but to be significant to a few.

There are times when you meet someone who winds up making a big difference in your life. In the way, you think, how you act, who you have become. And despite time or their absence, a piece of them continue to live inside of you.

My life has bounced between the extremes of exhilarating and excruciating many times, but no matter where my life is in my life’s cycle the impact this one man has had on it has always been quite evident.

A Good Man has that effect on you.

WrestlingU
Train Your Brain

Have you ever wondered why two wrestlers can wrestle multiple times with drastically different results?

Or why –

wrestler A beat wrestler B,
wrestler B beat wrestler C,
but wrestler A lost to wrestler C?

The answer is hidden in plain sight.

Styles make matches.

Choosing to match your style versus your opponents, to create and wrestle in advantaged positions and avoid wrestling in disadvantaged positions, is the most underutilized strategic asset in wrestling.

The wrestler who wrestles in his advantage position, for a greater amount of time in the match, will have the higher probability of winning.

That is the reason why two wrestlers wrestle multiple times with drastically different outcomes, and why the logic doesn’t hold that if one wrestler beat another he should be able to beat the wrestler his prior opponent beat.

If you watch and research matches between the same wrestler’s you will see, more times than not, the reason there was a different outcome in each match was because one wrestler was able to wrestle in his advantage position in one match and was not able to do so in the other.

A wrestlers’ job is to understand which position is his advantage position versus each one of his opponents.

In which position the highest probability of scoring points as quickly as possibly exists.

And to get to that position.

I believe, you don’t get to that position by chance,

I believe, you get to that position by choice.

WrestlingU
Train Your Brain

We have all seen the contest where a person in a bank vault has 360 seconds to grab as much money as possible.

If it were you, would you stop grabbing money after you had “just enough” in your hands?

Would you stop grabbing money when there were only 60 seconds left?

Would you ever be too tired to keep grabbing more money?

Obviously, not.

Why?

Because the reward of what that money can do for you overrides any of the reasons to stop.

A wrestling match is the same type of contest.

You need to have the same kind of mindset.

To a wrestler, points are money.

In each match, you have 360 seconds to score as many points as possible.

When the whistle blows, the allure of scoring points must override any and all obstacles.

Have a safe lead?

Need to score more points.

Have short time?

Need to score more points.

Have a fear of losing?

Need to score more points.

As like with the money grab, the only time you stop scoring points is when there is no time left in the contest.

One of the greatest assets in my life, other than my family and friends has been the sport of wrestling.

It has made me into the person I am today.

A person who can handle whatever adversity life throws at me.

The disciplines of wrestling are impactful on a young athlete’s life.

At first, one wrestles to win championships.

Then, after many years, one realizes it wasn’t the pursuit of championships that wrestling was all about –wrestling is about preparing you for life.

I owe a great deal to this sport, that is why I write about it so passionately.

I have written about the sport in my memoirs,

“6 Minutes Wrestling with Life,” “Again,” and “Your Soul Knows,” and I continue to write about it in this blog.

This book is a compilation of all my writing on the sport.

The book is designed to be read like each chapter is a short story, separate from one another.

Chapters can be read in order or randomly, that is your preference.

The first fifteen stories originate from my blog, and the last thirteen chapters, starting with “Overtime or Over Time?” are excerpts from my memoirs.

I felt it was necessary to compile all my writing of this great sport under one cover.

The chapters that are excerpts of my other books have been slightly edited to preserve the integrity of the story they come from.

I hope you enjoy reading “Wrestling Writing,” as much as I have enjoyed living it.

JohnA