Hey, everyone! We just got here in Oslob after  a 16-hour road trip all the way from Cagayan de Oro. I rested for a bit when I got here because I was already so zombified the past few days from everything that’s been happening (work, Mahal’s DTI graduation, packing for this trip and the road trip itself). I mentioned before that we’ll be doing a Mindanao-Visayas tour this month together with Mahal’s sister, his sister’s boyfriend and her daughter who came all the way from Belgium and now we’re here!

READ RELATED POST: HOW TO GET TO OSLOB FROM CAGAYAN DE ORO VIA CAR AND BOAT RIDES

I’m actually super tired from the trip. I only had a few hours of sleep on the boat as I tried drafting the Part 3 of my Boracay blog post series last night. Since that would entail a huge amount of time and energy for me, which right now, I don’t have, I decided to rest instead. I do, however, still want to update you here on my blog and all I can think about was that boxing fight our very own 40-year old Manny Pacquiao had against 30-year old Keith Thurman. We were watching it yesterday while we were packing for our trip and boy oh boy, wasn’t that a really good fight! Even veterans watching from the ringside described it as Pacquiao’s best one since his magnificent  win over Antonio Margarito back in 2010.

Here I am, as old as Manny Pacquiao, feeling so tired after a 16-hour trip, and there was him, as if he’s still in his prime, always ready to go after his dreams.

He started his career 24 years ago and since then garnered 62 wins in his 71-fight career. Grabeeee!!! Moreover, as per Wikipedia:

“He is the only eight-division world champion in the history of boxing,^[1] having won twelve major world titles,^[2] as well as being the first boxer to win the lineal championship in five different weight classes. Pacquiao is also the first boxer in history to win major world titles in four of the eight “glamour divisions” of boxing: flyweight, featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight.^”

WOW! Just wow!!! And he is one of our senators at that! A world-champion boxer and a Philippine senator, and many other titles under his belt. He is truly one extremely blessed person, a personification of what God intends for all of His children but not many are able to attain.

So what can we learn from this Pacquiao – Thurman fight where Manny once again defeated Father Time?

I think, it all boils down to consistently having a proper mindset and discipline. Remember my previous post about what Tony Robbins taught us about raising your standards? When you raise your standards, you turn a “should” into a “must”. And when you know what you must do, you know what you want, then you can take massive, intelligent actions for you to attain your goal, including always having the proper mindset, the right state of mind.

Manny knew what he must do. So he disciplined himself to train harder than ever. He let his body rest, he let his body recuperate, then he worked on making his body stronger than ever for this fight. After all, he is fighting an undefeated WBA champion, Keith Thurman, who is 10 years his junior. And with everything he got, he has beaten him in a very close fight against all odds! What a truly remarkable person Manny Pacquiao is!

I remember back when he was campaigning for a seat in the Congress and later on, at the Senate… some people would say that he should stick to boxing. When he won those  positions and still decided to continue boxing, the same bashers would tell him to just stick to politics because he’s too old to box. But you know what he did? He continued dancing to the beat of his own drum, followed his heart, putting God at the center of it all, and he is now what he is —  a multi-hyphenated person, adding another title under his belt, a WBA welterweight title belt making him the first fighter in his forties to win the 147-pound crown. AMAAAAZING!!!

He is one perfect example of many inspirational quotes I encountered growing up, namely..

“What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

“ Action is the foundational key to all success. “ – Pablo Picasso

“The path to success is to take massive, determined actions.” – Tony Robbins

… just to name a few.

 

So, just to sum up what I have learned from this boxing fight, if we want to reach for the stars, and prove that age is just really a number, we must:

1. Know what we want.
2. Know why we want it (our purpose).
3. Take determined, massive, intelligent actions to get it, and never stop, no matter what.
4. Manage your emotions by managing your state of mind because how you think and feel are actually how you will live your life.

READ RELATED POSTS:

HOW TO DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT

HOW TO BELIEVE WHAT YOU WANT IS POSSIBLE

In times of doubts (because we are only human), we can discipline our mind to think differently through positive incantations (which according to Tony Tobbins, and I agree, is way more powerful than affirmations). Affirmations are things you repeatedly say to train your mind to think that way. Incantations are affirmations expressed with emotional energy, intensity, and conviction. It comes with a certain physiology — you say them out loud with feelings as if it’s already happening in your life now.

One of my most favorite incantations is “Every day and in every way, I am getting better, and better, and better (or stronger, stronger, and stronger; or healthier, healthier, and healthier)” which I shout out with raw emotions everyday when I do my 7-minute HIIT workout. I first learned about this from Oprah when I used to watch all her shows when I was 18 years old in my college apartment while doing my weights and the abs sculptor. Perhaps, he got it from Tony Robbins too.

Another incantation I learned from Tony Robbins is :

“I now command my subconscious mind to direct me in helping as many people as possible today to better their lives, by giving me the strength,  the emotion, the persuasion, the humor, the brevity, whatever it takes to show these people and get these people to change their life now!”

This is what he incants before he does any talk, interview, or any public speaking gig.

And whatever your situation is, whether you are more of a writer like me than a public speaker, or a simple mom, a parent, an office worker, a business person, a student, whatever your situation is, you can use the same incantation or tweak it a bit according to your own situation to help command your subconscious to be the best person you can be so you get to help and impact as many other people as you can too.

 

MY TAKEAWAY

What Manny Pacquiao did and continues to do inspire me so much to better myself and be more of what God intended me to be. His win inspired me to not give in to the negative forces in and around me (because there are always negative forces in and around us), to not compare myself to others and just focus on being a better me each day through discipline,  massive determined actions and prayers.

How about you? Did you get to watch the fight? How did it affect you?

 

TODAY’s HOT TIP!

“Bold action in the face of uncertainty is not only terrifying, but necessary in the pursuit of great work.”  – Jonathan Fields

 

See you tomorrow!