One of the most notable character traits of champions – both on the mats and in life alike – is the fact that they’re focused.
Their focus is so strong that they won’t allow anything, no matter the size of the obstacle, to stop them in their tracks.
That’s certainly been the case for Dean Lister.
In an interview with BJJEE, Lister explained that he sees everything as a challenge to his resolve:
The harder a match is, the more that others doubt me or say that I will lose – the more motivation I have.
And that is not because I am angry, but simply because I know that it is a test.I definitely do know a few athletes that are tougher than I am, but they can sometimes lose focus when things get frustrating.
I never really lost my focus on what I needed to do.For example, I couldn’t understand the Spanish language when I was young and so I didn’t know what other people were saying, as well as those kids that wanted to fight me.
So I first learned to fight a little bit and then learned the language.It’s all just a test.
And, well, Dean Lister did have to go through a lot of tests throughout his life:
There were many difficult things that happened. For example, I had a girlfriend for about 2 years at the time, and her parents made us stop seeing each other because they thought that I was living in a world without a future in sight.
They thought that I wouldn’t become a champion.They didn’t see what I saw, of course.
They thought that sport and college were both a waste of time, while I thought of all of these things as life experiences.
Read our full interview with Dean Lister on the following link.
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