by Pamala Vincent
Winning the business battle can be like a champion-round match. Acquiring skills from the masters might keep you off the ropes in the business world. Afraid of failure? Knock-out punches keep a boxer always preparing for the fight. Building and maintaining a business you should be as prepared as a prize-fighter.
Here are some boxing tips you can take into the workplace:
Avoid distractions. There are as many fitness gadgets as there are boxers. You can spend your time researching, purchasing and trying out the latest ‘fad’ method or system of getting fit quickly. Save yourself the time, energy and money. Ever been to a gym where titleholders train? Their gyms are anything but fancy. There are opportunities for staying strong and agile. That’s it. They keep the main thing, the main thing.
- Too many entrepreneurs chase influencers or the latest gimmick for drawing customers. Build your business on honesty, integrity and transparency. It’s refreshing in our world. People will seek you out.
- Learn to put away distractions.
- Drive traffic to your business, create income, filter opportunities.
When it hurts, you can keep going. A well placed blow hurts. Study your opponent and build a strategy that keeps you out of the way of an incapacitating blow. You don’t always have to throw knockout punches. Turn your entire body into a punch. Punch with purpose. Mix up the punches: jabs, hooks, upper cuts will keep your competition guessing where you’ll go next. - Don’t sacrifice variety and accuracy for speed and power.
- Remember to calm down, focus, and throw the knockout punch when you know you can land it.
- Learn to look your opponent in the eye, and focus intentional hits to the body.
You can throw up and keep going. Getting started is difficult. The training is meant to prepare you for the real competition. Throwing up means you’re in there punching. Stay calm, pace yourself so you can last more rounds. Don’t waste energy with poor form, inefficient drives, or dancing around the ring. It might show you have heart, but you’ll only exhaust yourself and spend more time over the garbage can.
- Don’t spend time huffing and puffing about your business savvy—no one cares! Customers want to know you’re there for them and that you can deliver what they need.
- You can hit harder than you think. First hits are never your best, but the more you hit, the harder your punches will land. Until you push yourself past your best, you’ll never realize how much better your best can be. But be careful not to over-train. Working to failure everyday may cause you to quit before you’ve reached your potential.
- Prioritize jobs, delegate when necessary, keep the main focus the main focus.
- Don’t forget to have a starting time and an ending bell. Don’t live to work, recovery time is essential to live to fight another day.
Winners use Trainers. Champions understand it’s not just about working harder, faster, and longer, but it’s more about working smarter. Winning techniques can only come from tribal knowledge, investing in a mentor can help you have more wins than losses. Make friends in the gym. Don’t be afraid to get to know the expert boxers. You’ll be surprised how open people can be to sharing their successful battle-tested techniques. Ask them to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. - Look for someone further along the battle lines to mentor your journey.
- Don’t forget where you’ve come from and offer a hand up to the next guy.
Focus creates better success. To avoid being knocked out, concentration and single-mindedness are imperative. You can’t block every punch thrown at you, so if your opponent is overly aggressive, wait patiently, then step back out of the way. Once he misses, land your punch. Rookies tend to lean back, or duck, taking their eyes off their rivals—don’t. Strike a secure stance, establish yourself, wait, and then explode on them.
- When you’ve been beat by an adversary, ask them how they beat you.
- Interview leaders on their best ‘winning’ methods and practices.
There are no short-cuts to building a win. The day-to-day training, focusing on technique and capitalizing on your own strengths are what will matter at the end of the round. Challenge yourself against the big boys, but never forget what you bring to the ring.
Follow winners, study their techniques and like all good athletes, know their weaknesses. But inside the ropes, understand that it’s less about what your challenger is doing wrong and more about what you’re doing right.
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Pamala J Vincent is a freelance writer, inspirational speaker and entrepreneur coach. On assignment, to better understand the mindset of a fighter, she trained with a team of MFA fighters. After being nicknamed ‘Ice Pack’, not only did she get the real story of family men that fight for a living, but she fell in love with boxing and several years later still works out in a boxing conditioning program. She uses the training techniques to coach those who want to live purposeful lives. You can find her at www.pamalajvincent.com and social media.
