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This week’s podcast is another in the ongoing series about winning in the game of life. A few weeks ago I did an episode where I shared the 3 things I learned from Charlie Sheen about winning in the game of life.
Today’s show is about the lesson I learned from Muhammad Ali about winning, and how we can apply it to winning the inner game of life. I’m referring to the battles we fight every day with our own ego mind. The ego is the inner opponent we encounter whenever we do something that is outside of our current experience.
The ego’s objective is to keep us separated from our greatness, our divinity, and from living an extraordinary life. It uses any number of tactics to accomplish this, including fear, doubt, anxiety, worry, and indecision. These tactics can keep us stuck and cause us to lose faith in our ability to realize our goals and dreams in life.
Ali was arguably one of the greatest boxers of all time. He also had a high level of self-confidence, which is vital to winning in the game of life. In fact, he himself said, “I am the greatest” in 1963, before winning the world heavyweight championship. In my mind, there is no better person to learn from than a champion. When we learn from a champion we become champions ourselves.
I learned this lesson about a year ago as I was wrapping up the re-launch of Just Be It!: The Secret to Having What You Want in Life. I was facing quite a bit of internal resistance in the form of doubt and overwhelm. You know, the usual suspects that come around any time we’re doing something that’s outside of our comfort zone.
I was experiencing this on top of a fairly long to-do list I had to get through in order to finish the project. At the time, I employed the strategy Ali used to defeat George Foreman in The Rumble In The Jungle in 1974. If you haven’t seen this fight you should. It’s a excellent example of a champion executing a winning strategy flawlessly. There’s a link to the fight in the resources section below.
Show Notes
- In 1974 Muhammad Ali used a strategy called rope-a-dope to defeat George Foreman in one of the most hyped fights of the era.
- Dubbed The Rumble In The Jungle, the fight took place in Kinshasa, Zaire October 30th, 1974.
- We can use Ali’s winning strategy to defeat our own formidable opponent – the ego mind – against it’s tactics of negative thinking, fear, doubt, uncertainty, and indecision.
- This is the resistance we face in life.
- We encounter this resistance whenever we set goals that are outside of our current level of experience.
- Steven Pressfield talks extensively about the resistance in his work. If you haven’t checked out his stuff out, I encourage you to do so.
- The internal resistance we face is the real opponent. Nothing outside of ourselves holds us back from realizing our goals and dreams. Success is an inner game. In the game of life it’s us vs. ourselves.
- Ali’s strategy, known as the rope-a-dope, was to let George Foreman punch himself out. Then, once Foreman was exhausted, Ali delivered a knock out punch in the 8th round that ended the fight.
- Commentators said, ”The rope-a-dope was what did it. It just tired him out.” The same thing will happen to your ego mind.
- Like Foreman, your ego is a heavy hitter and a formidable opponent. So the strategy works just as it did for Ali. Because nothing the ego mind can throw at you will last forever. Eventually it will tire.
- When the storms of doubt are swirling around you, rather than expend your energy resisting them or fighting them, give way. Surrender temporarily and allow their force to dissipate.
- The key point to keep in mind is to allow.
- Even sailors know to lower the sails and batten down the hatches during a storm.
- Surrendering momentarily doesn’t mean quitting. It’s actually a smart strategy, as Ali proved.
- When we’re allowing the storm to pass, it’s a good time to think about our goal and our destination. And to visualize the desired outcome we want, and re-focus our energy.
- Once the ego mind has exhausted itself (and it will) we can begin moving toward our goal once again.
- The ego is fickle and easily distracted.
- We’ve got to always remember that we are stronger than our ego. When we use our soul strength, the ego doesn’t stand a chance.
“But Mark”, you say, “I’m tough. I can stand up to my ego and go toe-to-toe with it.” That’s great. But why would you want to expend the energy fighting when you could put that energy into creating? Why not give way momentarily.
Here’s what Ali had to say about going toe-to-toe with heavy hitters like your ego mind. -”Staying on the ropes is a beautiful thing with a Heavy Weight when you make him shoot his best shots and you know he’s not hitting you. I would have gave George Foreman two rounds of steady punching, because after that he was mine.” Muhammad Ali
I think that says it all.
One Sentence Summary:
To win the inner battle against the ego mind, employ Muhammad Ali’s rope-a-dope strategy.
Quote of the Week:
They call it the rope-a-dope. Well, I’m the dope. Ali just laid on the rope and I, like a dope, kept punching until I got tired. But he was probably the most smart fighter I’ve ever gotten into the ring with.” ~ George Foreman
Resources Mentioned:
- Interview with George Foreman – In this entertaining interview, George Foreman talks about that famous fight and about Ali in general.
- The Rumble In The Jungle – Here’s a link to the full fight.
- The post fight interview – More great insights into the mind of a champion.
Additional Resources:
- Just Be It! – Improve your performance and your results in any area of your life quickly and easily!
- The Alchemy of Despair – 17 of the most effective techniques I’ve ever encountered for reclaiming your happiness!
- The Magic of Being – Teach your child how to develop their self-image in a fun, entertaining way!
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All the best – health, wealth, and success!
Mark
