3 Ways Wrestling Will Change Your Life
We’ve all heard the old adage: once you have wrestled, everything else in life is easy. While I don’t agree with this quote in its entirety quote, the underlying theme is true. Namely, wrestling is a such a physically and emotionally demanding sport that once you’ve endured a career in wrestling, you’ve calloused the body and mind to the point where obstacles, that would rattle mere mortals who haven’t wrestled, are easier to handle.
No arguing with that logic, and in fact, that’s why I started the Wrestling Changed My Life Podcast. To interview former wrestlers, coaches, UFC fighters and business leaders to learn how the world’s oldest sport shaped and molded their lives.
After publishing 79 interviews with the likes of Tom Brands, Lee Kemp, Dan Gable, Bruce Baumgartner and Sergei Beloglazov (among others), I wanted to synthesize the roughly 70 hours of audio content into the Top 3 Ways that Wrestling Will Change Your Life. After all, at the end of each interview I ask each guest ‘how did wrestling change your life?”
#1 Self Awareness
Self Awareness means having the ability to look inwardly to identify what went wrong and what needs to be improved. This type of thought process requires one to take ownership for their actions and implement a strategy to improve. It can only happen though, under situations of extreme stress and pain, as most of us are comfortable with the status quo until the shit hits the fan. Wrestling, of course, manufactures these environments on a daily basis – whether it’s getting ragdolled in practice, losing a big match, or winning but barely winning against a lesser opponent. By having these profound moments (that require self reflection) often, wrestlers naturally start to apply self-awareness to other areas of their life.
#2 Relationships
This is by far one of the most common answers I get when asking my guests – how did wrestling change your life? It makes sense too, wrestlers are a special breed of people. Simply being around folks who are disciplined, hard working and humble tends to have a positive effect on anyone. Wrestling breeds these types of people by the dozens, and by having relationships with quality folks, one’s life can be changed.
#3 Discipline
Doing what is necessary to achieve one’s goals, even what you don’t want to, is a crucial life skill if you want to achieve any level of success. Wrestling is probably the most demanding sport a high schooler can undertake and in turn requires loads of discipline. By wrestling, you naturally learn discipline and will apply that to other areas of your life.
Conclusion
I’m going to up my blog game over the coming weeks and months, so please check back for new articles. Also, if you want to check out the podcast, you can find all past episodes here. New episodes are released weekly.
