2 days before his match with the undefeated back then Mike Tyson, Buster Douglas’s mother died. Douglas was preparing for one of the most difficult challenges that he had until that time of his life and another calamity hit his life. It is obvious that it was a very hard period for him, yet he managed to beat the ‘undisputed’ heavyweight champion of that time Mike Tyson via knockout, because he had a reason.
We cannot put down all his training sessions that he had done before, but there should be more than just training. He could have prepared sufficiently for his upcoming match, but not show up at the boxing ring, because he had a hard time in his life and use that as an excuse. However, he had a very powerful reason that inspired him to punch Mike Tyson back and win the match: his mother said to other people that his son will win against Tyson. The death of his mother has been a very painful experience, but he didn’t use that as an excuse to quit, but made the decision of doing his best in the upcoming match. Instead of showing up at the boxing ring, he could have “died” with his mother.
His reason was a very powerful trigger for him. The same match might have been disappointing someone from his work presentation, exam or school project. Maybe you are not a professional boxer, but you are getting discouraged because you got fired from your work, or your project did not meet the expectations and decide to never go out.
What we can learn from Douglas’s case is that when you have a powerful reason that inspires you to take action, no matter how bad things go, you usually continue putting your efforts until the end. This can also serve as a means of declaring war to procrastination and always finish important projects and not get discouraged when your application gets refused. Life goes on and new and even better opportunities might come, and the past experiences can be seen as parts that have laid the foundations of your future improved self.
