“I can’t let him fight.” the nurse said bluntly.
My blood pressure was at an all time high.
“Gabe, you’ve got to calm down.”
It was my first cage fight. I’d waited years for this night. No way was I going to let a high blood pressure reading stop me.
I sat out in the hallway to clear my head.
Ain’t no setting on earth like a casino hallway tinged with cigarette smoke and the faint ding-ding-ding of slot machines to find your breath.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
On the second reading I had apparently found just enough zen to drop my blood pressure to a level where I’d be allowed to fight.
Go time.
There are no words to describe the electricity I felt as I walked towards the event hall where my fight was taking place.
Lightning pulsed through my body.
Then before I knew it my walkout music was blaring...then I was getting checked by the referee...then after a quick rundown and a touch of gloves it was back to my corner and…
Ding! Ding! Ding!
You know that saying “tunnel vision?”
That’s what actually happened. The entire periphery of my vision was a pure black allowing the entirety of my sight to focus on one thing...my opponent.
Beyond him...pitch black.
What ensued was a melee of throws, punches, kicks, knees and the closest I’ve ever come to tapping (the act of submitting to end the fight) when I was caught in a choke so tight I began to see stars.
Thanks to my brilliant coaches, stalwart team, and focused training camp I ultimately prevailed victorious in the 3rd of 3 rounds by split decision.
The learnings I received from that seminal moment in my life have never left me.
Beyond footwork, nutrition, weight cutting, and jiu-jitsu one lesson stood largest above all:
Don’t Be Realistic.
Don’t let your mind become so pragmatic you limit yourself.
Don’t be so grounded in the odds that you consider every angle of what may ensue.
You see...here was my mindset going into that fight:
I am the winner.
I have already won.
I am better in every way than my opponent and he should feel terrified to fight me.
Now all I have to do is execute and claim my victory...the victory I already have.
To state the obvious: Nothing about that mindset is realistic.
I could have lost.
I could have gotten seriously hurt.
I could have been choked out.
But at the same time…
Everything about that mindset allowed me to claim my very real victory.
If I was anything less than 100% certain I was going to win it would have been not only ill advised but dangerous.
The lesson I learned that day to Not Be Realistic was in many ways a lesson I had known my entire life and subtly lived out. The fight was just that lesson made fully material...crystallized like I’d never experienced before.
My entire life I’ve always recoiled when I hear that phrases antithesis, “Be Realistic.”
It honestly makes me want to throw up.
It’s always felt like whoever is saying it is telling me to stay in line. To shut up and be like everyone else.
Hell no.
If I had done that all my life I wouldn’t have won that fight...and I sure as heck wouldn’t have won the next one either.
I wouldn’t have been able to co-found a startup, work 100 hour weeks and guide it from pre-revenue and no paying customers to 65 accounts, funding, revenue and 50 employees...all in a matter of months.
I wouldn’t have been able to row a marathon (42,165 meters) on 3 hours of sleep or deadlift over 450 pounds just a few years after recovering from two stress fractures in my lower spine.
The business where I am now wouldn’t have been able to hockey stick the size of its SMB base by over 15X in just over 2 years.
That’s my story...but what’s the big lesson here for you?
Yes YOU my dear reader.
It’s this:
Don’t be realistic.
Don’t ever settle with where you are today.
Instead do something entirely different…
Go after exactly what it is that you want.
Don’t be afraid of anything but your own greatness.
Be excited about who you can become and work towards it every single day.
So now let’s turn to you.
What are you waiting for?
What are you ready to Not Be Realistic about anymore?
Post below- I can’t wait to hear it!