Tag: Boxing

To Get Back in the Swing Of Things

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everybody!

My apologies it’s been so long since my last post. It’s been quite a hectic week since I’ve been back from Florida.

  • Strained my thigh muscle by being overcompetitive and not stretching
  • Strained my trapezius muscle by sleeping incorrectly… or something? I still can’t figure it out
  • Overbooked myself with boxing coaching
  • Puppy ripped up two couches
  • Went to the ER after eight hours of constant, writhing stomach pain and it looks like it was just constipation and/or gas
  • Tomorrow I have a root canal consultation

And I turn 30 next month. But we can look at a positive here. And it’s a big one: I’m still here, I’m still writing.

So I’m writing today because 1) I’ve been meaning to and 2) this helps me. I really wish I had more to type. I could call out my buddy, the only real life friend that knows of this blog, for calling me a hypochondriac earlier today. MAYBE I am just a tad bit, but I still stand behind this: The doctor diagnosed these things. So suck it, dude.

Anyway, I hope to be back with you lot much more often moving forward. I start my new job on Monday! Pumped. Kinda scared, but pumped.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

So, How Did The Tough Conversations Go?

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everyone!

Hope you like the style change on the blog. I didn’t like the other one. Too sloppy. I like it clean, y’know?

OK, so yesterday I wrote about tough conversations and boy, did I get some unexpected… well, let’s just get into it.

First of all, I mentioned talking to one of my boxers about the possibility of her not being able to fight because she doesn’t have that “killer mentality” or that “fighter” in her. The jury is still out on that, but we did end up naturally breaking down a wall or two yesterday. After some very light sparring, my boxer broke down. She could see she couldn’t pull the trigger and ACTUALLY hit me in the face. Can I put her in sparring knowing that? No. It’s dangerous for her. But we did discuss her mentals, what’s holding her back, the what-if’s, and much more.

That tough conversation created growth. And guess what? It happened naturally. Stay tuned.

Now for the boss conversation, well that was supposed to happen next Monday. Turns out you can’t always have what you want. To refresh your mind (how dare you not read my last post), I took a job at a new company. Planned on putting my two weeks in at my current company next week. Everything happened in such a funny way, though. Let me explain.

We had a team meeting. My boss manages four states/territories. Turns out he put in his two weeks! CONGRATS to him! Moving on to bigger and better things. However, he did ask me to stay behind in the meeting to talk with me.

“—-, are you leaving such and such company?” My boss asked, already knowing the answer.

“—–! What makes you say that?” I said, with a laugh and a definitive shit-eating grin.

Turns out telling one of my best friends at the company was a bad idea. They couldn’t keep their mouth shut. However, it all worked out into perfect hilarity. My boss’ situation with leaving the company meant he didn’t really care I was leaving because it wasn’t impacting him. You know what he told me?

“How about we forget we talked about this and just have the same conversation on Monday?” James said, smiling.

Guess who isn’t going to go a full month without a paycheck now? This guy.

It pays to be a good person to others. It pays to be a hard worker. It pays to be open with others. It pays to be vulnerable. Everything we’re scared of, everything we fear, helps us grow if we can conquer that son of a bitch.

Make those tough conversations happen, people. Trust me on this one.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Tough Conversations

~ Henry Butterfly ~ 1 Comment

Hi, everybody!

I’m a bit frantic today. I have a couple tough conversations coming up and although I feel comfortable going into them, the anxiousness is still alive and well in me.

What conversations, you ask?

  • One of my boxers doesn’t have the mentals to compete. She honestly doesn’t like punching people in the face, but she won’t admit to it. I’ll try one more sparring session with her and if nothing changes, it’s in her best interest to get competition out of her mind. Why? Well, her hypothetical opponent wouldn’t be afraid to punch her. That’s a problem for her. The problem for me? Keeping her motivated to keep coming in and getting the work in because the work she puts in is almost essential for her mentals to balance out.
  • I have to put in my two weeks at a company I’ve been at for three years. Three years. That’s pretty much two more years than I’ve put in anywhere else in my … 15 or so odd years of employment. It’ll be weird, new, but I’m very excited for it. I get to start my new job on April 19th and I can’t even begin to tell you how pumped I am for a new challenge.

But tough conversations are always good conversations. You learn from them. You change from them. You grow from them. Remember, fear is something we construct in our own minds. It’s not fucking real. Push it away. Go for those tough conversation so you continue to learn, change, and grow. It’s worth it, I promise.

Don’t be one of those people who continuously mentions the weather. No one likes conversing with that person.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Weekends Work Now

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, errybody!

It’s kinda nuts. When I started this blog just last August, I absolutely despised weekends. They were filled with nothing but misery, loneliness, terrible habits both mentally and physically, and they were just the absolute worst.

Now?

I’ve told you lot a million times things change. They change even when we think there is no possible fucking way they will change. Still, things change. No matter what it is. Things. Change.

Weekends changed for me. I now relish the weekend because I’ve filled it with my passion: boxing. I’ve filled it with dinners out with friends, late night chats with new people, and of course, I’ve kept the cuddling with my two doggos.

But the important thing here is to remember things change. And sometimes not always for the best, but there’s a good chance it changes again and turns around for you. You’ve got this. Don’t even think about giving up. Understand that inevitable change.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Training To Train

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everyone.

Still weirded out by the change WordPress made. Hopefully I can stop talking about it at some point.

Training to train. Bold title, right? I’m really running out of ideas. I’m just throwing shit at the wall and hoping it sticks at this point. Appreciate you lot for continuing to show support to this blog. Means quite a bit.

Training to train. Let’s get into it. What do I mean?

Well, as you may know since I’ve mentioned in 1,000x on this blog, I coach boxing. I used to compete in the sport, still think about competing, but I’m most likely staying where I’m at: A coach and forever a student of the sport.

I brought a new boxer to a new gym today. A more… dirty, rough type of gym–one in the hood. My coach always told me if the gym we went to spar at had air conditioning or too many fans, we were going to whoop that ass. He was usually right. It was about time to bring this new boxer to a different, less… well-equipped space. However, with that comes much tougher opponents, tougher coaches around, and the sum of it all is the boxer comes out better. The less provided, it sounds odd, the more the boxer gets out of it. Pushing themselves is what a coach needs to see. We can push you while you’re with us, but the goal is to get you to push yourself when we aren’t watching. Training with integrity.

The boxer was thrown off at first. Very different space. But she had some of her best mitt rounds with me in quite some time. That lack of comfort pushed her to another level this morning. She leveled up today. It was really great to see, along with a few other boxers.

But I messaged her after I dropped her off back at her home, “I need to train to train you.”

She replied, “What does that mean? Explain.”

I replied, “In order for you to continue to progress, I need to make sure I’m progressing as your coach.”

Took me a while to realize that. Quite some time. Maybe I’ve always been working to become a better coach, but now it’s a focus of mine. I do want to compete still, but that’ll take the back burner for now. I still have a few years left in my “prime”.

Now it’s about training to train. Progressing to reach new levels. Coaching with integrity.

I guess this is the first time I haven’t really spoken much on mental health on this blog. It’s odd for me, but hey, this blog can really be anything. That’s the cool part of all this. It’s my brain just spewing out shit. It’s healthy for me. I hope it’s healthy for you.

Continue working on yourself, no matter the difficulty.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Honestly I’m Just Bored

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everyone. Checking back in. I’m fucking bored (yes, very early cussing in this post).

Today is a very busy day. A few work meetings, going to mentor a hard-headed high schooler, followed by an individual boxing coaching session, and two hours of leading a boxing class.

But right now? I’m fucking bored, man. My work is very slow, I don’t have any interviews coming up till Wednesday, and my dogs are the only ones with things to do around this house (tear up shit, that’s what they have to do). I could be doing stuff, but it’s… well, just more unpacking. I’d rather be bored.

I am excited for the rest of the day. Mentoring and coaching. It’s what I love to do. Boxing, coaching, mentoring, whatever you want to call it: it’s my passion. Only a couple more hours of being in front of this computer making sales calls. I CAN DO IT.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Before Boxing

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Hi, everybody.

I now have TEN boxers. All very green, but promising! I’m writing this right now because I’m about to head out to coach a few. This is the best feeling I have during the day now. The moment right before I head to the gym. Right before I tell people to throw a jab, cross, angle out, toss another jab in there, throw a hook, & finish with a strong uppercut. Oh, make sure to jab out, too. Don’t want to get caught with shots when you’re finished with that combination.

Just typing that there got me pumped up. I fucking love coaching. It’s all I want to do. The relationships I make in this shit are PRICELESS. The vulnerability and openness people have with their coach is unmatched & I learn so much about the world, life, and other people’s lives each & every day.

I need to make sure to never take this for granted. Never turning this into a job. Keep it as a passion.

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.

Therapy Through Punching

~ Henry Butterfly ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday most of you (the followers, thank you) read I was in a dark place. Don’t let that past-tense fool you, I’m still there. What’s most important is that I’m still here. Living, breathing, trying to calm down.

Yet what helps me is my passion. My passion for boxing, which I wholeheartedly attribute my breakaway from addiction to. Now that I’m not fighting anymore, I coach, & I coach for free.

20 of the 24 hours of yesterday sucked ass. Yet, the four hours I spent volunteering my time to help build strength, stamina, & most importantly, self confidence, helped me more than it helped the boxers I was training.

I guess Anthony De Mello was right when he said every act, even a charitable one, is selfish. Look what I just said. It helped me. That’s not a bad thing necessarily if your perspective shines in a positive light. If the training didn’t help me, I wouldn’t be there to do it. Those individuals coming to learn wouldn’t have me as their coach. They wouldn’t get to see me perform in my now-natural environment. They wouldn’t be able to build their confidence like I did ten years back with boxing.

I’m here now outside of myself. I’m here for others. I haven’t given up on myself, but I’ve tried almost everything under the sun to break through my depressive disorder. It always comes back, sometimes (most of the time) more fierce than the last time. Yesterday I lashed out on my mother, lashed out on my father, & went to bed at 4 AM. I’m not OK, but I’m doing my damn best.

As my coach always said: Chin down, eyes up. (Keeps ya from getting knocked out.)

I wish you well. Try not to beat the shit out of yourself.