Red Hawk Essentials #39

Delusional Confidence, Motivation, Self-Accountability, And More!

Delusional Confidence In MMA

To succeed in this sport, you need to be obsessed. 

Everyone in the gym thinks they're the best fighter in the world and you need to have that much confidence in yourself. 

The downside to this is that you attach your identity to being a fighter. It’s engraved in the brain.

Everyone you interact with is probably gonna talk to you about fighting.

“Hey, when’s your next fight?”

“Hey, I saw you fight so and so, you’re amazing!”

It’s tough to let go of that identity when other people define you as a fighter too. 

This is probably why fighters fight longer than they should. Instead, they should realize that fighting is probably the shortest part of their entire life. There’s life after fighting.

And that’s why it’s important to have good people around you. It’s tough if you’re always bouncing between different camps and coaches. 

Some coaches will just agree with whatever you want. Like a bunch of Yes Men. It’s really tough to find people who will be brutally honest with you.

Take Tony Ferguson for example. 6 fight losing streak, not the same guy we saw run through all the lightweights a few years ago. 

I hope Tony has people around him who will tell him the truth even if he doesn’t want to hear it. Fighting is only one chapter in his life.

But at the end of the day, he needs to make that decision.

Ray Dalio talks about this concept in his book Principles. He says to look at a situation from an outside perspective with no emotions attached. From there, think about the best option.

That’s a hard thing to do though. It takes practice and a lot of skill to do that.

But it’s a skill worth developing and could save you from being your own worst enemy. 

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Getting Motivation From Others

If you have to depend on getting motivation from others to do something, you might need to do some serious self-reflection.

Of course, there’s a time and place for external motivation. 

I try to motivate my students the best I can. Especially the jiu-jitsu guys. 

There’s not a whole lot of money in jiu-jitsu, but you can still make a great living. If you get good and you develop great communication skills, there’s a lot of money in teaching jiu-jitsu.

But a lot of athletes don’t even consider that a potential career path. 

So I try to keep my guys motivated to win tournaments and tell them how much potential they have. 

But if they don’t have that burning passion for jiu-jitsu, then there’s no amount of motivation that will help them.

Motivation is fleeting. It’s such a short-lived thing.

People who depend on motivation usually fizzle out eventually. I see it all the time.

It usually happens around the blue belt level. Because the path to getting there is pretty progressive. But from there on out, progression is slow. That’s when people drop out.

But those who just love the sport and have a real passion for it, show up for practice even when they’re not motivated. Because they want to be there. 

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Be Accountable To Yourself

If you can’t hold yourself accountable to habits or goals you set for yourself, your life is probably gonna be miserable.

Because whether you want to believe it or not, you have no control over yourself. You’re being reactive and letting each moment control you.

For example, if you said you were gonna wake up and work out the next morning, but you wake up feeling a little too hungover from the night before… and then you bitch out and skip your workout - you’re not in control.

Your emotions in that moment are in control, not you.

You have to hold yourself accountable if you want to do anything that’s worth a shit in life. 

People say they want to be fighters. Make fighting their life.

But because they have no self-control, they go around creating extra responsibilities for themselves.

They start cumming in girls and now they have a kid. They could barely survive on their own before, but now they have an extra mouth to feed. 

Not being accountable to yourself will make you create your own distractions. And it’s easy to blame outside things as the reason you’re not hitting your goals. 

But if your goals are important to you, start doing what you say you’re gonna do today. 

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Model After Success

Whatever you want to pursue, there’s probably already an expert on it. And I think one of the quickest ways to build a solid foundation for yourself in whatever you’re learning is to study experts.

Once you have an idea of what works and what doesn’t, then you can put your own creative spin on it. 

Gyms have been around forever.

So taking what works for other gyms has led my gym and my students to a lot of success. Since then, I’ve put my own touch on the curriculum. But my program is still very young and new.

I didn’t invent it though. I didn’t have to. I just modeled after success. And now it’s about reiterating along the way until we build something special. 

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Updates

Doing a lot of competition training. Got about 10 students going to the ADCC Open this weekend.

And we leave for Boston in 11 days.

Suga is in great shape. He’s cracking hard. It’s gonna be a tough fight, but we’ll see.

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Quick Hits From This Week

Red Hawk Recap Ep. 100

Welcome to big #100 of the Red Hawk Recap. On this pod, I was joined by my buddy Jeff Wittek.

Jeff Creating Content

Jeff started making content when he was about 16. But he really blew up when he started filming his haircuts. He used to sell weed for a living but made the choice to switch over to social media.

Lessons Learned In Jail

Jeff spent months in jail. But he learned a lot of good lessons there. No one wants to sleep in a dorm with 100 dudes and no stimulation. 

StreetBeefs

I took 5 of my guys to StreetBeefs around 3 years ago. One of my boys KO’d a guy via head kick and I was scared he killed the guy. It was a good experience but we’re never going back.

TimboSugarShow Ep. 246

Tony Ferguson vs. Bobby Green

Tony just looks weathered. I wish the people around Tony would tell him that fighting doesn’t define him. Maybe look into something else. 

Derrick Lewis vs. De Lima

Derrick Lewis is now a free agent. Is he gonna be back in the UFC? He looks motivated and back to being The Black Beast.

Justin vs. Conor

I don’t see Conor coming back anytime soon. The new Conor isn’t as hungry as the guy on the come up, so I don’t know. 

Sending Love To Schmitty

Thank god Schmitty made it back to Missouri to be with his dad. Send Schmitty some love!

Subway will give you free sandwiches for life

Just change your name to Subway. Would you do it for $5 footlongs for life?

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Red Hawk Academy Patreon

On Patreon this month, we’ve done a bunch of giveaways, podcasts, and vlogs. 

We’ve been going 4 years strong with our Patreon. There are hundreds of videos on there, with new content going up all the time.

You can get exclusive access to technique videos, extra podcasts, and general healthy living videos. 

I reply to everyone on Patreon, so if you have any questions, hit me up there!

»» Click here to check out Red Hawk Academy on Patreon

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That ends it for this week’s Red Hawk Essentials.

Hope you enjoyed this one. Give me a like/comment/subscribe below.

If you’re new here, welcome to the fam! We’re dropping gems like this each week.

Luv ya, talk next week.

Tim