Are you guilty?

There is a movie based on real events called Papillion – the Steve McQueen one, not the recent one. Papillion is living out a life sentence on an Island Prison where he keeps having the same dream over and over. He sits in front of a tribunal who convicts him of a wasted life. This eats at him and motivates him to attempt escape after escape until he finally does escape many years later. He became an advocate for prison reform and was responsible for closing the French prison colonies that were barbaric.
Papillion made mistakes as a young man. He faced the reality of his ways and evolved as a person. He aspired to be more than a criminal stuck behind bars. He did everything he could to give himself another chance at life. He got his chance and he fought to give that same chance to others in his same situation.
What does any of this have to do with Combat Sports or training? Daily, I have people walking in our doors with a dream of some goal that has alluded or inspired them. They are in many ways prisoners within the life they have created and they need to escape in some way to achieve things outside their norm. They need to do something to take away the feeling that they are wasting time, wasting life.
Now is where the hard part of the story for me comes into play. Too many abandon the dream before they get anywhere close to achieving it. They stop trying to escape, they quit and go back to what they defined at some point as wasting time, and go back to the ways where they felt they were wasting their life.
I am not being overly judgmental here, in fact this is not judgmental at all. This is an analytical conversation about people abandoning their dreams.
Why do we quit on things we are inspired to do? Usually it’s simply due to the level of difficulty. Here is the real truth; if you think what you are trying to do is hard – wait until you are older and you have to live with not trying. Trying and failing is way easier to live with than giving into our fears.
If you are going to walk in and tell me or anyone that you want to do something. You obviously thought it through and came to a conclusion that this is what you wanted. There was some spark of inspiration that motivated you to break out of your normal and go for something different.
When you want to quit. When you don’t want to endure any longer. Remember that moment when you were inspired to start. Keep going.
You can be convicted of wasting your life, or you can go for it and live an extraordinary life. For me, there is no choice. This was instilled in me by those who trained me. Hopefully I can train you in a way that makes the path clear as well.
Brian Wright
Killer B Combat Sports Academy – Oakhurst, NJ