Champion Mindset
Conor McGregor will make his return to the octagon against Donald Cerrone as the headliner of UFC 246 this Saturday, January 18th in Las Vegas. "Notorious” is looking to set the table for a great 2020 since his fourth-round submission loss to Nurmagomedov in October 2018. But, this time around he has taken a new approach to his training and preparation for the fight.
In a recent interview with ESPN MMA reporter Ariel Helwani, McGregor said that he was inspired by basketball superstar LeBron James to start investing in himself. He said: "For so long, in my mid to late 20’s when I started to acquire wealth, I was obsessed with material things. I would buy myself cars and watches.”
Lebron James, 34- 3X NBA Champion and 4X NBA All-Star- has reportedly spent a seven-figure sum on the process and team that keeps him in tip-top share including a home gym, trainers, therapists, chefs, appliances, and more. "LeBron James spends $1.5 million annually on himself. I saw it and said, 'I spend ZERO.” McGregor told Helwani.
Material possessions create short term satisfaction, and this is what many professionals choose to spend their money on. But investing in your body and mind will create long term benefits and potentially increased performance and longevity in your game. Mental skills training is becoming more prevalent in the sports industry. The mental game is what tends to separate the good players from the truly great ones. Athletics is just as much about being physically superior as it is about being able to mentally dominate your opponents. While it isn’t widely discussed in the sports world, many of today’s greatest athletes utilize a mental skills coach or sports psychology guru in order to master the mental aspects of their respective sport.
After being invited to speak with motivational speaker and author Tony Robbins, McGregor claims to have enlisted the philanthropist as a ‘life coach’ to regain the right mind-set to compete. When asked about his meetings with Tony, McGregor replied “I was very happy with it, I felt really uplifted coming out of that, I’m going to continue that.”
Scoolu coach and elite mental skills coach John Phelan believes it was a smart decision on McGregor’s part. In terms of a life coach John believes that “each and every person is like a 4-legged table. 1 leg is physical, 1 leg is emotional, 1 leg is mental, and 1 leg is spiritual. We must constantly be developing each leg through new experiences and reflections about those experiences.”
It goes without saying that each aspect must be improved in order to be well balanced, including the 3 legs that are associated with the mental side. John goes on to say that “the experience without the personal reflection does not develop the leg.”
McGregor has certainly taken a page from Lebron’s book and is committed to the idea of investing in his health and body moving forward. He goes on to tell Helwani that “if you're in a game, make sure you're in it all the way, all in with it, and then that game will be your game. That's where I am right now. And I've only kind of taken this philosophy recently." It will be interesting to see the effects the new adaptations McGregor has made in his training regimen and preparation will have on this weekend’s fight and potentially for years to come and whether McGregor will be a more balanced athlete.