When you suffer a setback, it is tempting to stay down and give up. If you do this once, however, you will do it again until it becomes a habit. This is why you need to have something that you are so obsessed with, it motivates you to keep going. So, what makes YOU get up again after a fall?

For our Big Friday Finish webinar on 16th September, we were joined LIVE on YouTube by kickboxing World Champion and Muay Thai fighter Liam Harrison! Ranked number 1 in the UK since the age of 17, Liam is a qualified coach who also uses his experience to guide entrepreneurs and leaders to the top of their field. Here are some insights he shared on channelling your obsession and overcoming setbacks:

Resilience requires discipline

Liam has had many fights where he has come close to losing, only to get back up again and win the game. He has also lost 25 fights out of over a hundred, and has sustained many injuries over the years, the latest being a damaged tendon in his knee. For Liam, being unable to perform at maximum capacity is a hugely frustrating situation. Yet rather than letting the frustration take hold, Liam uses his setbacks to motivate him to do better next time. His obsession with his calling is bigger than his setbacks and the frustration that goes with them.

When you are going through a challenging time, you have to be resilient. If you get up after a fall, you give yourself another opportunity to win, but you must be able to step out of your comfort zone. No matter what sector you work in, you will face frustrating situations when trying to achieve your goals and it may seem like you have no control over the situation. According to Liam, however, there is no point feeling frustrated – you simply need to keep looking forward. No matter how much training and education you receive, no-one can teach you passion. That is up to you.

Criticism is part of the sport

Throughout his career, Liam has had many people publicly criticise his performance and declare him finished, done or beaten. Being a champion put him under a lot of pressure and if he didn’t deliver what his fans wanted, many of them reacted badly. These days, criticism is what gives him fuel to keep getting back up.

Criticism is unavoidable in any career path. The thing to remember, according to Liam, is that fire always comes from below. In other words, people above you aren’t worried about your successes and failures – people below you are. Not all criticism is constructive, but you can turn it into a positive by building your resilience and increasing your motivation to get back up and continue pushing forwards.. If what you are working towards matters enough, unhelpful criticism will soon bounce off you.

Is the end goal worth the hardship?

This is an important question to ask yourself. Achieving long-term goals is never easy – according to Liam, if your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough. You have to be obsessed with what you’re doing and have a work ethic that is beyond compare. It’s not enough to simply go by the “try your best” mindset – you need to be focused on achieving the end goal no matter the hardship and to always be planning your next move.

Liam’s advice is to not focus on the fight – or process of achieving something – but visualise the result. Thinking only about the process is daunting and will give you too much capacity for self-doubt. Instead, let the vision of what you want to achieve drive you forward. In fighting, the title doesn’t make the fighter; rather, the fighter makes the title. Your successes don’t make you who you are – who you are defines your successes.

If you want to hear more of Liam Harrison’s story and apply what he has learned to your business, please watch the Big Friday Finish webinar for FREE on our YouTube channel here.