Matt Coddington
MDI Contributor
The boxer kept getting punched, and knocked down, but he also kept getting up. He didn’t give up: he refused to, even though it was hard, and he felt he could take no more punches to the body and the face. Eventually, he sustained what he thought was the final blow. “Stay down. Stay down. It’s over. Accept it.”
His trainer and team believed in him though, even when his belief in himself was struggling, as he lay on the mat, bloodied and bruised, thinking he couldn’t go on. They yelled above the crowd, but they couldn’t help him unless he got up himself, and found the way to his corner. He had to make his way, on his own.
When the bell rang and the round was over, he stumbled to the stool in his corner and into the arms of his trainer and his team. They poured water on his head, put balm on his cuts, and told him he could keep going. He wasn’t down yet. There was still fight left in him. He could win!
But was winning the outer fight the real match? What if the real match was within the boxer, within himself? Are you a boxer? You have to be, and it’s tough. Do you know that your biggest opponent is within yourself? That’s who you’re up against.
That’s the hardest fight any of us will ever wage. None of us punch as hard as the opponent within ourselves. That motherfucker is relentless, until we we stumble into our corner between rounds, with blood streaming down our faces and bruised ribs, and rely on our trainers in the boxing ring of life.
It’s not about how hard you’re hit: it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. That’s why we have a mentor, a men’s team, and a division behind us.
Well said