Don’t Beat Yourself

By John Passaro on March 5, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

The first step in winning is learning how not to beat yourself.

A wrestler learns how not to beat himself by cleaning up giving up easy points, by eliminating putting himself in bad positions and by deciding never to do anything that exposes his back.

All of this can be accomplished by having a great stance.

Having a great stance is paramount in the process of learning how not to beat yourself.

A great stance has three lines of defense.

The head, the hands, and the hips.

Each line of defense is designed to protect the most valuable parts of a wrestlers body.

Never breaking stance, no matter how tired you are will give you the foundation to build upon to become successful in wrestling.

There will reach a time when you stop wrestling.

It is at that time, life will become your new opponent.

Life will be the greatest opponent you will ever face.

No amount of training will ever prepare you for the onslaught that life has waiting for you.

To win in life you must first learn not to beat yourself.

In the battle against life, your lifestyle will be your stance.

A proper lifestyle will stop easy points from being scored on you by life.

It will keep you out of bad positions.

And it will keep your back from being exposed.

Decide early on not to partake in any activity (especially the use of drugs and alcohol) that will diminish your mind, deteriorate your body, and evaporate your spirit.

You must never break your lifestyle.

As soon as you do, life will take you down.

And if you happen to break your lifestyle and life doesn’t take you down, well, that is even worse.

Mistakingly, you will feel that your lifestyle is not needed to stop the attack from life.

You couldn’t be more wrong.

Your lifestyle must protect the three most valuable areas in your life; your mind, your body, and your spirit.

You need your mind to make good decisions, you need your body to be in ultimate health and you need your spirit to be in its greatest state to enjoy life.

Imagine that you are in a wrestling match against a highly trained, highly motivated opponent.

One that is not only looking to beat you but is also looking to annihilate and humiliate you in the process.

Life is that opponent.

If you are to have a fighting chance against life you need to be at your best.

With full faculty of your mind, your body and your spirit you will have a fighting chance against life.

With any part of any one of these areas at less than full capacity you will give up easy points to life, you will put yourself in bad positions and ultimately life will throw you to your back.

Life is as formidable an opponent as you will ever face.
Life is too skilled of an opponent to attempt to beat with less than your best.

If there is anything you are doing in your lifestyle that is giving up easy points you must correct it immediately before going on to any other rules, as no matter what you do if you don’t master rule #1 first, mastering all the other rules combined will prove fruitless.
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Don’t Beat Yourself
is an excerpt from