The Art Of Crazy

Why you need to be kind of crazy to be a successful fighter

From Muay Thai Guy

Wait. There’s an art to being crazy?

Fuck yea there is!

If you are a Muay Thai fighter, you have to admit. You are kinda insane.

You have a little section in your brain that most normal people don’t have. Most normal people wouldn’t want to push themselves to the physical and mental extremes that you do. Normal people wouldn’t make it through one of your training camps. Normal people definitely would not be able to fight a 5 round war in front of hundreds of blood thirsty fans.

In order to truly be successful, you need a healthy dose of ‘crazy’ as a part of your every day diet. Think about it, most successful painters and musicians were/are crazy, so why not you?

You are an artist too. You dedicate your life to a physical martial art that pushes you past your normal limitations and fears. Just like any painter, you start with a blank canvas when you enter the ring and it’s your job to make a masterpiece out of it.

That being said, it’s important not to overdose on crazy, otherwise you might do some really crazy shit. I mean, one dude even cut his own ear off to prove his devotion to his lover… I’m guessing you probably don’t want to do that. Then again, he was a pretty damn good painter so he must’ve been doing something right.

4 Steps To Being Crazy

1. Be obsessive

You need to be insanely focused and determined in order to be a successful fighter. One of the most common characteristics I see from elite fighters is that they are completely obsessed about being the best.

That means everyday you need to be improving as a fighter in one way or another. Each day you wake up, you need to have an obsessive drive to better your technique, diet or conditioning. You have to want it bad. Keep reminding yourself that each day you slack off or eat like shit, your opponent is doing 100 rounds of pad work and eating an organic chicken salad.

Wanting it badly is key to not only training hard, but fighting hard too. If you are as focused and determined to win the fight as you should be, you will be more likely to fight through injuries, show off all your potential and do what you do best… win!

“Obsessed is the word lazy people use to describe dedicated”

2. Don’t believe the hype

No matter how good you are, you always have to strive for perfection.

You will have your fans, commentators and other fighters praising your technique, heart and skill, but you have to be your own worst critic. You have to never believe the hype people build around you.

If you get comfortable with where you are and start thinking you’re the shit, you will fail miserably.

Once you start believing in your own hype, you’ll start to slack off at the gym and take your opponent lightly. You’ll think that you don’t need to train hard because you already have all the skill set and talent to win.

Don’t be a dumbass.

Never be satisfied with where you are. It does not matter how many people think you are sexy as hell or that you are the next Muay Thai prodigy, you need to always strive to better yourself so eventually you do become that Muay Thai legend. You need to be so critical of yourself that people think you are crazy for not thinking you are the shit.

3. Feed off the haters

Haters are EVERYWHERE. The good thing is, if you have haters, you are doing something right.

It’s great to get to the point where you have a good amount of passionate fans, but you truly aren’t at the level you want to be at until you have those blood sucking keyboard warriors. Once you have people going out of their way to try to fuck with you, you know you’ve made it.

No matter how awesome and badass you are, there will always be miserable pricks trying to take you down. These people are pessimistic, miserable assholes that have nothing better to do with their time than to criticize people who are doing what they love to do. Meanwhile, most of them live a hopelessly meaningless life, so if anything, you should almost feel bad for them.

It sucks that people have to suck. Fortunately, you can turn all of their negative energy into motivation. Haters should fuel your fire when you are training for a fight because if you slack off at training, you’re supplying the haters with plenty of ammunition.

It might sound a little crazy to embrace the haters and use them for motivation, but that’s because, it kinda is.

4. Have complete confidence in yourself

Believing in yourself and your dreams is one of the most important things you can do to become successful in any area of your life. Most people who have dreams to become world champions or a successful fighter, often get their dreams laughed at because of how unrealistic and unusual they are.

You know what though? Fuck those people.

The people who criticize others dreams most likely live in their own sad world where they never look to push the envelope or step outside of their comfort zone. Chances are they live a sedentary life, watch too much TV, and live their dreams through others who are actually doing something with their lives.

The good thing is, the only dreams you have to believe in are your own. Truly believing that you will accomplish your goals will help you focus, work hard, and persevere through paralyzing difficulties where most other people would just quit.

You might be crazy, but you are not a quitter.

If you set your mind to something and truly put in the effort to make it happen, then chances are much more likely that those dreams will come true. And even if they don’t, you will still have accomplished more than if you didn’t try at all. Plus, have you ever heard the corny quote, “life is a journey, not a destination”?

Well it’s corny, but just like most corny quotes, it’s true.

Yes, it will feel amazing when you reach your goal, but that ultimately isn’t going to benefit you as much as the time, effort, and sacrifice you put into getting there. The journey to your goals will help you learn a ton about yourself and help you grow as an individual.

It might sound crazy to want to do some of the things you want to do, but I think it’s fucking INSANE to live a boring ass life and not take risks to do things the thing you love.