How To Keep Going (when things are tough) View Larger Image

Have you ever worked hard and felt that you where still going nowhere?  I have, it’s so easy to get pumped and excited for day one and then lose that momentum.  Who doesn’t get that way?  Look at all of those who head to the gym after New Year’s and as the days, weeks and months fade, so does the resolution.  I promised myself that if I was going to continue with T.A.G. Muay Thai, I wasn’t going to quit.  I remember for the first few months, I wanted to quit so bad!  I had no idea what I was doing, and I didn’t know what a basic jab or cross was.  It just looked cool watching it in fights, but I had no idea how to stand in proper stance and throw with proper form [Related: Video on proper Muay Thai Stance].

There was so much for me to learn and take in, my hands and feet did not want to cooperate with one another! I was the odd one out, and was told I sucked.  I look back at it now, we all have to start somewhere.  It’s either you keep going or you quit.  Those were the two choices I gave to myself.  I decided I was going to learn, slowly but surely. I started to attend class month to month, and guys – it’s been over a year now and I’m still with TAG!  

Let me share with you my secrets on how I actually remembered my combinations.  I got off work early to head to the 6pm Kids MMA class at the Michael & Sons Sportsplex at Dulles to help and hang out with the kids program right before the Phase I adult class. When I was helping the little ones, it was actually me who was learning.  They helped me out more than I was helping them.  We all have to start from the basics, correct?  NEVER UNDERESTIMATE the power of patience and endurance.  I had to humble myself, and get out of my mindset that I knew everything.  I honestly didn’t.  I was learning as the kids were learning.

I remember the first time I started to understand the difference between what a jab, cross, lead and rear leg was! When I first started all this, Muay Thai was a foreign language to me.  I remember staring at Kru Chris like a deer looking into bright…really bright headlights! When we then transitioned to the Adult Phase I class, inside, I was jumping for joy like I just won the lottery!  I was so happy I learned what the differences were, and started learning the terminology.  

This is the transition of going through crossroads, it’s so tough at first, but have patience and endure to keep on learning.  I learned to have an open mind, to pay attention and to correct myself once I was given instruction on what to fix.  It starts with your mind.  I had to stop telling myself, I couldn’t do it and that I sucked (Kru Chris also gives out a daily Muay Thai motivation reminder throughout class, BUT, he always gives us little things to focus on to “Not Suck”).

I had to tell myself, I can do this and I WILL get better.

THIS was my testimony to my kids:  

“You achieve EVERYTHING they want to do as long as they set a goals and DO IT!”

Muay Thai motivation written by Shaida Hong – single mom of 4, Nak Muay (White Prajiad), and health chef. Learn more about T.A.G. Muay Thai by visiting our homepage, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter account. Live out of town? Get Muay Thai tutorials on YouTube to further your own fitness journey.