Why Are You Hitting Yourself?

Ready for a martial arts living tip? Well, here it is—stop hitting yourself!

If this video tip doesn’t play, you can find a full transcript right below. Either way, I hope it helps! 🙂

Stop Hitting Yourself!

If you had to deal with a bully or a bigger brother growing up, you probably remember him grabbing your hand and hitting you in the face with it.

“Why are you hitting yourself? Why are you hitting yourself?”

Well… why are you?

No one’s holding your hand anymore. Yet how often do you hold yourself back from success? How often do you hurt your own chances at happiness?

It’s sad, but true—you may be the biggest bully you know. You may be your own worst enemy.

When you start martial arts training, it doesn’t take long to figure out how dangerous it is to bully yourself.

• If you get hit and lose your confidence, you don’t hit back. So, you get hit again.
• If you get pinned and doubt yourself, you can’t escape. So, you get choked.
• If your plan of attack doesn’t work and you feel sorry for yourself or blame others, you lose your focus. So, you get dropped on your head.

The lesson is clear—losing your confidence, doubting your ability, feeling sorry for yourself, or blaming others will never help you.

Instead, you must train yourself to keep thinking about what you CAN do, and how you CAN win.

No, I’m not saying that a positive attitude guarantees that you’re always going to win every fight. You might still lose—you might even die! But until that dire moment arrives, it’s up to you to keep fighting.

You are the only one who can stop you from moving forward. Which is why, until your last breath, you must believe you still have a chance and keep fighting.

There are no “sure things” in this world, but I can tell you one thing for sure—

The moment you give up, it’s impossible to win.

That’s why you have to keep fighting the battle instead of fighting yourself.

Take a moment to imagine you’re in a fight. The battle is one-on-one. But then you start doubting yourself…

I’m not strong enough! I’m not fast enough! I’m not good enough!

Now the fight is TWO-on-one. It’s the other guy plus your inner voice teaming up against you. Now you have to deal with TWO bullies.

You’re outnumbered. You can’t win.

The funny thing is, you would never allow anyone to talk to the people you love the way you talk to yourself. Imagine you heard someone tell someone you love—

“You can’t have this. You don’t deserve that.”

“You’re not smart enough. You’re not cool enough.”

“You’ll never write a book, start a business, or be great at anything.”

If someone spoke like that to someone you love, you’d tell them to shut up… or punch them in the face!

So, why do you speak to yourself that way?

Stop it.

Here’s what I want you to do…

I want you to make a promise to stop hitting yourself. Stop choking yourself out. Stop stabbing yourself in the back.

I want you to defend yourself from yourself.

The next time you hear your inner voice saying something hurtful or unkind, I want you to apologize to yourself.

Seriously. When you hear yourself talking trash about you, say, “Stop. I’m sorry.” Or punch yourself in the face!

Final thought…

No matter who you are, life is going to present you with a never-ending series of battles. It can feel like you’re all alone out there, which makes giving up easy to do.

But you are not alone.

Think of all the people who are on your side. Your family. Your friends. Your teachers.

Think of all the people you don’t even know who would agree with you and support you if they knew what you were fighting for.

Think of all the people throughout history who would stand by you and fight for your cause.

The fact is you have an army standing behind you.

Generations of families, friends, and like-minded souls who lived and died to put you where you are today.

Now, it’s your turn to do something. It’s your turn to win!

So, if you want to conquer the world, start by conquering the bully inside your head. Stop hitting yourself.

Then gather up your army and start marching towards your goals. And if you feel like giving up along the way, remember—

When you go into battle… when someone picks a fight with you… it’s never a fair fight. Because you don’t fight one-on-one… you fight a million-on-one.