STOP BEING SOFT – Motivational Speech to Build Mental Toughness
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If you can see it here and you have the courage enough to speak it, it will happen. So a lot of times people believe in certain things but they keep to themselves. They don't put it out there. If you truly believe in it, if you become vocal with it, you are creating that law of attraction and it will become reality. Make this note. Don't become a victim of yourself.

Forget the thief in the alley that's after your purse. What about the thief in your mind? That's after your promise. There's this thing About people and they talk about manifesting. It's been real mad Manifesting is real when you figure out who you are and what you want to do and you devote your life to it like a maniac like you're all in on this thing and you manifest most of these people end up, you know,

Doing what they say they're gonna do and being who they say they're gonna become it's real it's and there's no excuses There's no days off There's no everybody's against me and this didn't happen for me because of this and that and all this whining These these people who dive in and they're hardcore and they're focused and they know what they want They know who they are and they lay out these short-term goals and this roadmap on how to get there Most of those people make it. He's the biggest man I've ever seen

I wouldn't want to fight him. That's why no one will remember your name. There's people like us, we're crazy in the sense that we believe to be, it's almost delusional sometimes. Like, what's the one, I've heard this quote on the JRE before, it's like, greatness and madness are next door neighbors and they just borrow each other's sugar once in a while. I can manifest like a mother. Everything comes from the imagination.

Everything comes from the imagination. So the power of the mind, people don't understand. We still don't understand. I still don't understand how powerful it is. I'm still learning. But I know one thing is I can make things happen. I can go into levels. I just can't tell the world. But like there's levels that like I've manifested things that I'm just like, I still shock myself. Like how the fuck did I make that happen? And this is not even to do with fighting. This is to do with my personal life. And I'm like,

I made that happen. And this is through this like manifesting subconsciously as well. Just years of something just manifesting, manifesting and boom, it's right there. I'm just like, I really made that happen. It's scary, man.

True years in the gym, true, true wins, true losses, true life. I just realized that if you say it to yourself and you look yourself in the eye and look yourself in the mirror and truly, truly believe that not a man alive can beat you, then that is the way it is. And just true hours in the gym and preparation, I feel that I am untouchable right now.

I want to reassure you that no matter what the night, no matter what the storm, no matter what the difficulty, there isn't anybody here that can't figure it out, find some things to do, step at a time, yes. Minute at a time, yes. Day at a time, yes. Week at a time, yes. But there isn't anything you can't walk away from. There isn't any challenge you can't overcome. I want you to have that kind of belief in yourself. Maybe it was your time to lose.

You didn't think so. Lose! I don't lose! I win! I win! That's my job! That's what I do! If a person would sit down and let their body relax, totally relax, and then start to visualize in their mind, see themselves the way they want to see themselves. See how you'd like to live your life. See yourself living it that way. Now understand that that's a picture in your mind.

Take that picture and describe it, write it out in the present tense. I am so happy now that I see myself and write it out. Start to read it and read it and read it and read it every day, carry it around and keep reading it. The one point that all the great teachers all down through history have all agreed on, they've been in complete unanimous agreement on it, we become what we think about.

Now it may be fantasy at first, it might even appear to us as being a lie. But if you read it often enough, you'll start to believe it. I watch people in the personality change right in front of my eyes and all they're doing is starting to see themselves differently, starting to think different thoughts. - No, I feel confident 'cause I'm the best player in the world, it's simple.

You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose. If you want revenge for the bad things that have happened in your life, start with the version of you that hasn't lived up to your potential.

Connor, in February of 2013, we spoke for the first time. You didn't have a car. You didn't have a pot to piss in. All you had were blueberries. Now here you are with the undisputed gold. Enjoy it, my friend. You deserve it. You called it. Yeah, from nothing to something to everything. You know, two years ago, I had a goal in my head.

That I'm going to be the best player in the league. You know, I believe in the law of attraction. It's something that is like an internal belief. I just feel it in my whole being that I'm the best fighter on the planet. I honestly have convinced myself that I'm not designed to lose. Power of the mind. And I believe that you can speak things into existence. And I believe that when you know where you're going and you know what you want, the universe has a way of stepping aside for you. The first step.

before anybody else in the world believes it is you have to believe it. I've always had visions of better. I've always visualized better. And in times of struggle, like driving around, driving down in a banger of a car that I had to push start, I'd be still driving a soft top Bentley around beautiful California in my head. And lo and behold, now I am driving a beautiful soft top Bentley around California.

I always visualized good things. I always visualized victory, success, abundance. I visualized it all and it's all happening. Around 2010, 2011, I went through this huge spiritual thing where I became obsessed with the power of the mind. Meditation, visualization, and just realizing how powerful our minds actually are. Like how we really do paint our world with our thoughts and our level of self-belief.

So I took myself from being very average minded to actually believing that I was the shit and believing that I could be the shit and that I could be the GOAT and be the greatest and never lose. I took myself to a different place mentally and a lot of it came from mental practice and meditation and visualization and just seeking knowledge from people who are strong believers. I knew I was going to be the person to bring martial arts to the public eye.

And now it's happening. You know what I mean? There's two things I've learned from all, from these past seven months. Number one is the hard work pays off. And number two is that dreams come true. And that's what's happening. Everyone is jealous of what you've got. No one is jealous of how you got it. People see the trophies, but not the training ground. Everybody wants the view, but no one wants the climb.

A negative mind will find any way to make the world fit his priors. Right. So if you go into a situation, adamant that you are unlovable, unwanted, broken, flawed, insufficient, you will manage to warp reality to be able to fit what you already believe. That you used to go up on Mulholland Drive and park and visualize seeing yourself as...

- Yeah, I would visualize, yeah, I would visualize-- - This is when you were broke and poor. - Right, having directors interested in me and people that I respected saying, you know, I like your work or whatever that is. And I would visualize things coming to me that I wanted or whatever. - This was in like 1987, '85? - Yeah, yeah. And I had nothing at that time, so it was like, but it just made me feel better. It made me, at that time, all it really was for me was

kind of making me feel better. I would drive home and think, well, I do have these things and they're out there. I just don't have a hold of them yet, but they're out there. It's a beautiful feeling when preparation meets opportunity. You know, nothing is impossible. You know what I mean? You can achieve anything.

That's how your mind works 24/7. It never turns off. You have got to change the way you think. It is the whole determining factor of where you go in life. We are all where we are today because we thought ourselves to this position. If you don't like the position, think yourself out of it. All that matters is how you see yourself.

If you see yourself as the king, you know what I mean? You see yourself with all the belts and all everything. And no matter what no one else says, as long as you see that and really believe in it, then that's what's going to happen. Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity. Why would you be realistic? What's the point of being realistic?

just put up a barrier. I'm going to do it. It's done. It's already done. The second I decide it's done, it's already done. So now we just got to wait for y'all to see. Is there any limit to your ambition? No. Or any limit to what you think you can achieve? Well, no. Because I think right now, if I was to...

Quit rapping and I say I want to go to the NBA. I would be in the NBA. No you wouldn't. Yes. No you wouldn't. Yes I would. No you wouldn't. Yes I would. Why would you think you could make it to the NBA? Because I think I could do anything. You need to tell yourself if you're going to win a little. There is no opponent. There's no no. You're against yourself. I believe in myself so much that nothing is going to stop me. The sky is the limit. And as a kid growing up I believed that.

I believe that whatever I put my mind to, and if I was willing to make sacrifices and I was dedicated, that I could achieve absolutely anything. Because despite my situation at the time, I always believed that. I don't know why, but it seems like I had some voice in my mind who told me that it's going to happen.

How? I don't know. But it's going to happen. Then I'm like, yes, I'm going to do it. And that was just like six to seven years ago. Your words were your destiny. You spoke out your reality. You said, I'm going to do that. Connor, you've been dreaming about this moment. You've been talking about this moment. Honestly, though, does it feel the way you thought it would? Yeah, it does. It feels beautiful. I dreamt this so much, so clearly, so precisely.

and so frequently that it has manifested itself into reality. And that's what I am feeling right now. It's a dream come true. I have been feeling like the UFC World Champion since the day I arrived here. Did you have faith maybe back then that your time would come and that you would be able to explode onto the scene as you had? If I didn't, it wouldn't have happened. I had to believe in it. I had to feel it. I had to have faith in it for it to happen.

I fail to be at the pinnacle of any game. In any, whatever you do, you've gotta be a little bit gone to it. You're not all there. You've gotta be almost insane to your craft. Not a lot of people can understand that. That's why I don't know about nothing else. I do not pay attention to nothing else. But there's 24 hours in a day where you're alone in this brain. And your brain is talking to you in all kind of ways. And it wants to control you, pull you in these different pockets.

If you can't control your own brain and your brain controls you, you've got to tell your brain where you want to go and how you want to go and how you want to get there. You've got to control it. If not, it's over. When I was a kid, I used to visualize stadiums. And like, even when I was playing football, I'd kick the ball against the wall and pretend I scored a goal and I'd run off and I'd be raising my hand and visualizing an arena full of fans. And that was something I'd done as a kid out on my own. I like...

just running around kicking the ball. So I always had these visions of something, but I just didn't know what it was.

There's a little thing, what do you want to be? I don't want to be anything. I am everything I want to be. I'm already there. I don't want anything. People say, I want this. I want to do this and I want to do that. But the vibe you're pointing out is want. You're always going to want. I always have the attitude that I have. I want to tell you something that I learned that changed my life.

I was reading a book one time that had a quote in there from Albert Einstein. And Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is everything. It's the preview to life's coming attractions." If you think about that, that's a really, really true statement. Because everything you see in this world came from somebody's imagination.

Everything. And he said, "Now don't you ever tell me there's something that you can do." You know, I heard a quote one time from Vincent van Gogh that really rang true. He said, "He has dedicated his life to his art and he has lost his mind in the process." When I sat and I thought about that, it sounded very familiar. I have given every single thing

Every ounce of my life to this craft, to perfecting my craft and I continue to do so. And in the process, I have lost my mind. But in a good way. To regular society, to people who wake up at 9am, who clock out at 5pm. They would look at me and say I've lost my mind. But me, I have found it almost. Me, I want what's coming to me. Or what's coming to you Tom. The world, Chico. And everything in it.

And you know what it is, no matter how many times people put you down and write you off in life, never pay attention to it because it doesn't mean anything. Because I've proved, as just a normal, normal looking man, average Joe, that anything is possible, no matter where you are in your life, how dark of a place you're in. It doesn't get any darker than committing suicide, and I was there. And to come back to...

To lose all that weight, to lose over 10 stone in weight and get back mentally well again and regain the crown jewels in boxing. It's been a fantastic career and you should never let anybody crush your dreams because anything is possible and I'm definitely proof of that, it's true. Thank you. If you have a clear picture in your head of something that is going to happen then nothing can stop it, you know what I mean? It is destined to happen.

So I think a lot of us have the battle of the other self that we're the lesser version of ourself that we're trying to kill every single day. And so a lot of times we have this desire to point the blame finger externally

But wherever you point the finger of blame, power follows. And so whoever I blame for the life I have is the person who I give all the power over my existence, over my circumstances. And so it hurts. But if you turn the finger inwards and you start saying, huh, I don't like my life. The person that I need to punish or get back at is the real person who got me here, which is me. Make a choice.

Like you just decide what it's going to be, who you're going to be, how you're going to do it. Just decide. I've done everything I said I was going to do. I was laughed at. I was literally laughed at to win that second world title. When I first came in, I was going to take these two world titles down. Laughed at. That's never going to happen. An Irishman even winning the UFC. When I said that, I was laughed at. So I said I was going to win the two world titles. I won them.

I've done everything I said I was going to do. Every move is a calculated step. Make no mistake about that. What do you think the sport's going to be when UFC 200 rolls around? Where do you think you're going to be nine years from now, ten years from now? I'm hoping to be a champion. I'm hoping to be a champion. I'm believing that I'll be a champion. I'd love to grab the belt and hang on to it and be the next ESPN, be the next Silva, and keep the fans excited.

The UFC is growing and it's just a tremendous thing to be a part of. It's changed my life and I embrace what it is. This is the law of attraction. You have to, in the struggle, when things are going good and you visualize these good things happening, you visualize more good things happening, that's easy.

What's not easy to do is when things are going bad and you're visualizing the good stuff. And that was what I was able to do. But for the most part, I don't live in a space of I can't. I live in the space of I feel confident that if I put in my 10,000 hours that I can achieve anything. He who says he can and he who says he can't are both usually right.

And I genuinely believe that I can do anything. And I went from a very average thinking person, like just an average 19-year-old, when I really dug into the power of the mind and how important it is to look at yourself in a high regard and to believe that first you can. And yeah, that's when I started to fly.

Greatness is not this wonderful, esoteric, elusive, godlike feature that only the special among us will ever taste. It's something that truly exists in all of us. It's very simple. This is what I believe and

I'm willing to die for it. Some games and some moments you're getting a little bit more upset. For example, after the Euros to eliminate penalties against France, you take

Two days. Because it's a special moment, pressure. But that's it. Listen, third day. Anything you want, you can get, period. And you got to wake up and tell yourself that every single day. Look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself what you really want. You're the one. And when you realize that, boy, I'm telling you, you're going to be very powerful. Because you can control what you can control. The world is in your hands. And we're just waiting to see what you're going to do with it.

I want to represent an idea. I want to represent possibilities. I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want. I believe that I can create whatever I want to create. You have to start with action. It needs to be, okay, what would have had to have happened in a week's time for me to look back on that week and find pride in myself? Okay.

Maybe stop breaking promises to yourself. When you say, I'm going to wake up tomorrow at 7 a.m. and when the option comes to hit the snooze button, don't do it. There's one win that you've got for the day. That's action. I think that there's a certain delusional quality that all successful people have to have.

You have to believe that something different can happen. - And I think of one at a time, a minute each. I see and feel something in my life that I'm really grateful for. I do little things and big things, so you don't have to have a giant thing to be grateful. And then I do three minutes of what I call, you know, three to thrive. I think of three things I wanna make happen, outcomes, results,

And I don't sit there and beg for them or pray for them. I see them as done. I feel them. I celebrate them as done. Because when your subconscious mind believes it's done, it makes it happen. So it's kind of programming it. And the whole thing only takes 10 minutes. Tired, 14 days, 13 days, whatever the hell it is, don't mean nothing. Tired is only in the mind. You tell yourself you're tired, you're going to be tired.

I don't get tired. I can't discipline is doing what you hate to do, but doing it like you love it. I love that quote. Yeah, and that's a chance to do to be the best. Do or do not. There is no try. Everybody asked me the question. They want to know what kind. I know he's going to wow out and he's going to do something crazy. Everybody wants to know what I would do if I didn't win. I guess we'll never know.

How do I gain more confidence? It starts with yourself, man. You got to start diving into those things that you are afraid of. You don't gain confidence by going to the spot that makes you feel good. It's going to be a false reality. What gives you confidence is not being afraid. It's overcoming the fear. I used to stutter severely bad. So right now, I don't know how many people are going to watch this. You know what gives me confidence? It's knowing I no longer care if I sit and start stuttering to you. Yeah.

That's what gives me confidence is facing these things, overcoming them. And maybe not overcoming them every day, but facing them and facing them, facing them pretty soon like this. You know what man, this is where it's at. It's not in that comfort zone. It's in the discomfort zone. The only thing that you can do is win so big that all of them constantly compare themselves to you and then you'll forget they exist.

Success is the only revenge. He's like, it's not the best revenge. He's like, it's the only one. There's no other revenge because everything else is petty. Everything else does show that you were thinking about these people all day long, which means they win by default. A few weeks ago, I was in the gym working out. This NBA player walks in with his trainer. I could tell by the exercise they were doing, he was used to doing just 12 reps. Because when the trainer said, let's do 15 today, he got a little attitude.

Because I want to be great.

And you're not. I want to be one of the greats. People want to know where I find my strength at, where I get my strength. I get it from a lot of places, but right now this morning, I'm getting it from there's not a mother that's up. There's not a car. There's not a person. Everybody's in their bed, sleep, dreading that it's a Monday. Hey, this is Monday and I'm loving it. I'm loving that where everybody's getting weaker. I'm getting stronger.

It's not about the running, the swimming, the push-ups, the sit-ups. It's about what those things do for your mentality. You don't get better on the daggone couch. You get better by coming out here and getting the f*** after it every daggone day.

Connor, in February of 2013, we spoke for the first time. You didn't have a car. You didn't have a pot to piss in. All you had were blueberries. Now here you are with the undisputed gold. Enjoy it, my friend. You deserve it. You called it. Yeah, from nothing to something to everything. Man, bro, when you really want something, you're going to find a way, ultimately. And it might not be today or next year or five years or ten years, but...

This thing takes priority and precedent over all other things. And even then in this life, it's not necessarily guaranteed that you'll get there. But I know what's not guaranteed is you being comfy and getting there. That's not happening. Greatness is not meant for a few chosen people. It's meant for those who persistently pursue their dreams every day and make that choice when they wake up. So...

Just a mentality really. Aspirations come from people that do amazing things, but they're really ordinary people just waking up every day doing it, doing the little things that other people aren't doing. So this guy just passed me. He said, "Gaggis, just be average today." Some of you just don't understand. Some of you have been average for so damn long, you don't know what it is to do hard work. But there's a lot of you out there who want to be much more than average.

but just don't know how to do it every single day, the grind. You can find someone to oil those ears up. So check it out. This is a mindset. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. But there's a motherfucker out there who wants what you have, who wants the position you are, who wants the job you have, who wants the wife that you have, or the husband. There's someone out there hungry and wants everything you have. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not.

But if it is, it's gonna be your ass. So make that a motivation for you. Stay hard. We're not on this stage just because of talent or ability. We're up here because of 4:00 AM. We're up here because of two-a-days or five-a-days. We're up here because we had a dream and let nothing stand in our way. If anything tried to bring us down, we used it to make us stronger. We were never satisfied, never finished, will never be retired.

My high school English teacher, Mr. Fisk, he had this beautiful quote, and it read, rest at the end, not in the middle. And I took that to heart. I believe there's time for resting at the end, but for me, that time is not now. My next dream is to be honored one day for inspiring the next generation of athletes to have a dream, sacrifice for it, and never, ever rest in the middle. Why do we fall, sir? So that we can learn to pick ourselves up.

We will win. Because we will hit all game. We are motivated. We are dedicated. We will win. We are the best on the field. Will you do me a favor? Stop being scared to be you. Start being you. Look what they think. You keep running. Look what they gonna say. Start being you.

Listen, before you know it, life is going to be over. And you want to say to yourself, I didn't live my life. I'm seeing too many people out here being close of people that they never met just because they seen them on social media and they put this whole show on. This whole show, this production of their life is so great that you don't even want to be you. That you abandon yourself. I ain't going to never jump outside of myself or be nobody else. I'm going to be me.

Stop being you and stop being anybody else. Stop being scared. What's the least amount of sleep you play the game on? Story where it's like, you know, no one knows about where you went and played a game and it was so insane for whatever reasons. No sleep. You play the game with no sleep. Zero sleep.

So you don't sleep. It's like, you know, kids, you know, Natalia had a certain, you know, health situation or what have you, and you stand up all night and then you got to go out and perform because fans don't know. Teammates don't know, nor do they care, nor should they, that you've been up all night. You got to perform, right? And so you just got to go to work, man. I'm obsessed with finding myself now.

after and not having to prove anything to anybody other than myself. You see this guy here staring back at you? Yeah. That's your toughest opponent. Every time you get into the ring, that's who you're going against. I believe that in boxing and I do believe that in life. My hero.

That's who I chase. Now when I was 15 years old, I had a very important person in my life come to me and say, "Who's your hero?" And I said, "I don't know, I gotta think about that. Give me a couple of weeks." I come back two weeks later, this person comes up and says, "Who's your hero?" I said, "I thought about it. You know who it is?" I said, "It's me in 10 years." So I turned 25 10 years later. That same person comes to me and goes, "So you're a hero?" And I was like, "Not even close. No, no, no." She said, "Why?" I said, "Because my hero is me at 35." So you see, every day, every week, every month, and every year of my life,

my hero is always 10 years away the way i look at it within myself why not why can't i be the mvp of the league why can't i be the best player in the league i don't see why why why can't i do that be the guy who embraces the ugly the miserable

Be the guy who embraces hard work, the grind. Don't be afraid of being hurt. Don't be afraid of a sacrifice of some blood. And there's only two types, winners and losers. Winners don't make excuses when the other side plays the game. I heard a quote one time from Vincent van Gogh that really rang true. He said, he has dedicated his life to his art and he has lost his mind in the process. When I sat and I thought about that,

It sounded very familiar. I have given every single thing, every ounce of my life to this craft, to perfecting my craft and I continue to do so. And in the process, I have lost my mind. But in a good way, to regular society, to people who wake up at 9am, who clock out at 5pm, they would look at me and say I've lost my mind. But me, I have found it almost. Tired.

14 days, 13 days, whatever the hell it is. Don't mean nothing. Tiredness is only in the mind. You tell yourself you're tired, you're going to be tired. I don't get tired. I'm emotionless. I am zen, at peace, ready for war. If you want to be great, if you want to be the baddest mother ever at what you do,

You're going to be misunderstood by everybody because you're going to be so obsessed and so driven to get there. That's what it takes. That's the truth. It takes every second of your life. Anybody says balance? Yeah, balance is important for a lot of people. It is. But if you want to go to that edge where people do not like you, don't understand you, question everything you do, you've arrived.

When you are misunderstood to the point where people think you're psycho and you're nuts and you're this and that, why are you in the gym at one o'clock in the morning? You just got through doing an op for 13, 14 hours at the ranger school, man, at the gym. What's wrong? You will never understand what is wrong with me. You're crazy until you're successful. Then you're a genius.

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