This time our guest is 6 time kickbox world champion Jason ‘Psycho’ Suttie. Fighter, trainer, and certified Wim Hof method instructor. We will talk about why he started boxing, his mindset, and his confidence. He tells us more about how he reached for help after a big loss and how he experienced the transition from being a fighter to fatherhood.
As a little kid, Jason had a bad temper and struggled with his anger. Out on the streets, he would get into trouble. He discovered that he could let all of this anger out in the ring. For Jason, the money was a bonus because he had found his purpose. He became addicted to the accomplishments and winning.
Even from the beginning of his career, he has had a strong mindset. This gave him confidence and made it possible for him to look differently at his opponents. He has an unbreakable spirit. Because Jason is very short, it wasn’t hard to find a guy that was bigger than him. This has never stopped him from reaching his goal, winning. Instead of thinking about the fact that he is shorter, Jason will redirect his focus. He will look for his injury and find leverage. “Find a man’s weakness and everything else will crumble”.
His biggest motivator was that he didn’t want to lose. He would sacrifice everything to reach his goals. This meant training for 8 weeks, 2 times a day straight. No alcohol, no parties and sometimes not even sex. That was a high price to pay as a young man but he did what he had to do. Knowing that his opponent did the same thing gave him even more energy. Having a hungry heart is what he also seeks out in his students. Jason will always go for the guy that is determined rather than the guy that has all the technique. Because that guy you can teach more and more. In this game, it’s 80% mindset and 20 % technique. Not just in the ring but also in life.
After 10 years of fighting without losing, he had what he called the biggest failure in his career. It was the first time as a super heavyweight and in the first round, he gets knocked out completely. He feels too embarrassed to go out and he is even too shy to teach his students. He wants nothing more than to make a comeback, so he calls fighters who are better than him. He asked them how they overcome their losses and they told him to go see a sports psychologist. So he went, did the work, and made a big comeback. He fought the same guy who knocked him out and two others in one night and became world champion.
The biggest insight he got from this experience is that you have to keep going. You have to evaluate your mistake, practice, and make sure it never happens again. Don’t dwell on your mistakes, instead look forward to getting better.
Jason is a big believer in affirmations. He unknowingly learned himself how to be the master of his own universe. He would stand in front of a mirror, lock his eyes and tell himself that he’s undefeatable. He felt silly doing it. Like he was lying to himself but after 3 weeks he could feel the effect of his own words. Now he teaches his students how to beat their own demons with this same technique. He lives through his students now he can’t fight anymore. He gets so much energy when he sees his students winning. It is also a way of passing down a part of his mindset onto the next generation. He tells his students they should give 100% mentally and physically because they’re going in anyway.
Jason also made the transition from fighter to fatherhood. As a father of 4 and husband to 1, he has learned a lot about life outside the ring. One of the most difficult things he had to learn was to show his emotions. He felt weird holding hands with his wife because he was so used to hiding his emotions in the ring. Now he knows that showing your emotions, is one of the strongest things to do. It does not affect how he fights in the ring.
The moment he steps into the ring and someone stands in front of him, he is an undefeatable fighter. It is game on. He likes to use his enemy as a picture in his mind during training. He will challenge himself with his enemy in mind. He believes that if you put your opponent at the end of a challenge, you will never fail. Do you use your enemy to reach your goals?
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