“Wisdom is a woman, and loves only a warrior.” – Friedrich Neitzsche
A few days ago, I learned my new favorite word:
Gameness.
Definition:
“Pursuit of the fight despite physical consequences.”
The term comes from mixed martial arts, where gameness is an obvious requirement.
But when we translate gameness out of fighting and into the real world, we get an even more potent definition:
“Pursuit of the goal despite the pain.”
Strip away the formalities, and most of goal achievement comes down to two things:
Intelligence and pain tolerance.
And since most modern goals don’t require supernatural intelligence, the ability to bite down on your mouthpiece and do what needs to be done no matter how it feels will take you well beyond 99% of the herd.
Of course, most will smile and nod and assure themselves they’re as game as it gets, until the game gets real, and they realize what real gameness really is.
See:
Gameness doesn’t mean fighting hard.
It means fighting until you either win, or lose consciousness.
It doesn’t mean giving a lot, it means giving everything — and if everything still isn’t enough, it means digging even deeper to find more than you knew you had.
It means no amount of pain can stop you.
Of course, the ability to not be stopped is only half of the equation.
But combine it with the intelligence to know when to stop — to recover, reload, and then return to the fight — and you’ll be unstoppable.
Let the games begin.
- T
P.S. If you wanna see gameness in action — and you have a strong stomach — watch the five round war between Dustin Poirier vs Dan Hooker.
Mature audiences only.
You’ve been warned.