Hello Dear Readers

It has been a while. I wish I could say that I have been so busy and successful in the business that I have been run off my feet and have made so much money I did not know what to do with myself.
Some other time I am sure…in the near future, hopefully 

No, but suffice it to say I have been busy.  I have had some more guests, so things are increasing.
And I have been finding ways to keep myself busy. And yes, the more astute of you may have guessed it…I had my fighting debut in the ring!
James ‘Picasso’ Fitzpatrick took the ring.

As an unexpected bonus, I also won the fight by unanimous decision. The smile on my face, the ecstatic feelings were palpable in the air.

Me in the black and Red shirt.  A big thanks to my opponent Stuart for a good fight!

I have often spoken about my feelings on fighting back, standing up for yourself, and for what you hold true. For what you believe in. Well, it was not good me talking about it, writing about it, without having actually done so myself. So bravely, I trained…intensively for a month. Honed my skills, and the big day came. I strapped on my gloves, some groin armour and some borrowed head-gear, and I stood in the ring, and said to my opponent, ‘Here I am!”

As I commented in a FB post, ‘It may be old-fashioned, but to this day, it still remains the only true test for gentlemen – One on One combat!” As the US Marines would add, ‘By sword, by gun or by bare hand!” So yes…I did it and I went the distance. And, as expected, my reward at the end of it was not a prize purse. It was not money, or fame. My prize was even better.

The only reward was respect. And in this miserable world, the ONLY respect that matters.
Self Respect!

To anyone who has never fought in the ring, I would highly recommend you do it. It affects you and your outlook on life in so many ways. Allow me to elaborate.

When I was a school teacher, one of my mentors had a favourite saying.
“Success breeds success!” Unfortunately, it does have an inversely true relative, “Failure breeds failure.” You should know this mantra…some more than others, and sadly some personally.

Like a boxing match, sometimes you let one punch too many in, and even though you’re not down, you’re still standing, you never seem to fully recover from that. Worse still are the ones who have had this form of abuse their whole life…they have never had that ‘life-saving win’ that translates from wherever the win came from , into all aspects of their life from that point on?

The circumstances of the mentor mentioned above were that we were discussing a certain student who had the skills and was clever enough to do well – infinitely better than she was doing at present – in the subject she was being taught. What she lacked was confidence in herself and in her abilities.
I made her education in my class a pet project of mine…engaging her throughout the class and making her concentrate more. In the end, she did her assignment test, and rocket up from a 30 to 40% average to a whopping 74% for that one assignment. The look on her face was priceless. She had surprised not just everyone in the class, but herself!

How she fared after she matriculated I know not, but I do now that this one little success changed and moulded her, so in all subjects and I would assume her life too, she started doing better. What that one success had done, was infect her opinion of herself and told her it was ok to try; and then maybe to try a little harder.

Bringing it back home, I needed this win in my life…not to change anything in my hobby of Boxercise, nor to affect my weekly work out for my physical health. At my age, I could have done without all the extra training, muscle aches and getting punched in the face sparring sessions whilst I learned how to actually stand and move in the ring.

I needed to know I could go the distance in the ring…to do well at one thing in my life.  To win!

So that, my mindset is now this
“If I could do THAT, I CAN do anything!”
Sounds like a small and easy change – and some of you say, ‘did you really need to get punched in the face for that?’

But that is what I needed! And knowing the theory does not help. You actually need to do it!

I may not be a smart man – I never claimed to be. But I am of the firm belief that this win, for me will have long-lasting effect on my life going forward. I’m not stupid or arrogant enough to say that I will never lose again. Of course I will…that is part of life. But now, I do believe, going forward, that I have the skills and tools necessary to pick myself up and carry on.

And in closing, this is the message and the advice I will pass onto you. Find something you are passionate about…something hard and event specific. Something you need to train for…hone new skills for. Be specific…not something as vague as…’I want to lose weight!’ Where is the ‘why’ in this goal?

A determined goal would be, “I want to lose weight so I can enter this beauty contest!” Or “I want to run a Marathon!”

Then, work towards it and set yourself up for a completion. If you lucky, for a win!

You will all be surprised what such an action will have over your life. How it changes you mentally; and of course physically. Let it mould you…warp your psyche to it until it forms a new, better and improved you!

For those who are interested, here the videos of my fight are on the FB page.

Until next time, take care of yourselves.

James

The Banting Boxer!

Me – after the fight with my wife and son!  A huge thanks to all my friends – my supporters who crawled out of the woodwork to come and support me!  I know for most of you…boxing is not your thing per say (especially for my wife)…but you made my day all the more special by coming and cheering me on!