Life's a Fight

Want to get more out of the AM Excellence (AMX) experience?

Consider joining the AMX Fight Club, a community of highly driven, ambitious individuals looking to challenge themselves, grow and fight for what they want in life.

Listen in as The Spaniard introduces a new element to A Fighter's Mindset - The Spaniard Podcast. The daily series, AM Excellence, serves as your daily dose of morning inspiration.

Taken from his daily readings, as well as personal insight and perspective, The Spaniard delivers these short, insightful messages with the intent to instill an excellence mindset in all who listen.

Follow along LIVE at www.facebook.com/spaniardmma, M-F. (Be sure to follow and enable LIVE notifications for times and updates).

Here is the conclusion of the rich discussion between The Spaniard, his brother Ben "ChAd" Brenneman and Dread. As a scholastic athletic director, Ben shares the four aims that he impresses on coaches so that winning will take care of itself. Both brothers reflect on how relationship choices intersect with pursuit of goals and how a turning point in The Spaniard's career contributed to friction between them. All seems to be going well with the episode even as a question lingers from the first half of this recording: Will Dread's dog behave himself?

He is famous on Twitter as @no1joes (220 followers!) and as ChAd ("Chief Advisor") in The Spaniard's book "Driven." It's Ben Brenneman, big brother of The Spaniard! In the first half of a packed discussion in Dread's kitchen, you'll hear how Ben helped watch out for his kid brother as they both pursued wrestling through Division 1 programs and then on into The Spaniard's pro fighting career. In between, Ben ignored shoulder problems to help The Spaniard win big on the reality TV competition "Pros vs. Joes." The mutual admiration and inspiration is evident as we learn how many grapes ChAd would allow The Spaniard during weight-cutting.

Here's a podcast episode about a podcast episode. That's how much benefit The Spaniard and Dread got from a recent interview of Rob Dyrdek on another podcast. The Spaniard relates highly to Dyrdek's story of small-town-athlete-turned-inspiring-businessman, and Dread learned a lot as well. They discuss just a few of Dyrdek's Ten Do or Die Principles: Being Obsessively Curious, Relentless Consistent, Passionately Compelled and Honestly Brilliant. You'll walk away with new insight on the importance of continuously learning from others. Seek out the Show Notes for this episode for lists of The Spaniard's and Dread's favorite podcasts, as well as details on the gut-busting treadmill workout The Spaniard learned from UFC fighter Eddie Alvarez.

Me? A Fighter? Yes, you. The Spaniard and Dread urge you to adopt this title as you reach for goals that matter to you. They point to the ancient Fight or Flight response and to shining examples of fighters in sports, entertainment and public service. They discuss how two types of fighting—Reactive and Creative—figure into history and into inspiring lives. Need some time to come to identify yourself as a Fighter? No problem! The Spaniard explains how it was hard for him even after winning several professional cage matches. Also: What is going on with Dread's beard?

Something is missing. That's a common thought when progressing toward goals. For The Spaniard and Dread, what is missing is deeper engagement with the most active followers of A Fighter's Mindset. The podcast turns a corner in this episode with a strong welcome for stories from goal-seekers at charlie-brenneman.com (contact). Another easy way to start forming a relationship with The Spaniard is to leave a comment at his daily AMX videos posted at facebook.com/SpaniardMMA. Also in this episode: The Spaniard applies a new adjective to Dread without fully knowing what it means.

You are not alone in your struggles. You might be confronting wrongdoing; being dismissed; straining to control your emotions; fighting to speak up; regretting defensiveness … The Spaniard and Dread touch on all of these while discussing a seemingly small incident of line-jumping at a store. The talk leads to valuable reminders of mindfulness, humility and continuous improvement. We also learn how The Spaniard manages to satisfy hordes of trick-or-treaters. Plus a little more bro-crushing on The Rock.

Recording before a live audience for the first time, The Spaniard and Dread dive into the saying "How you do one thing is how you do everything." What comes to the surface is intentionality. Find what matters to you most, align your life toward them, and keep going. Don't be derailed by perfectionism, failures, or by dwelling on more-capable versions of yourself that don't exist. This means you, Ohio State team that lost to the local-favorite Penn State Nittany Lions just the day before this recording. Not that The Spaniard mentions that …

Just before this episode was recorded, The Spaniard persevered through an audio failure while live-streaming a video. This illustrates the essential skill of continuing to perform during problems or detours. You can come to prize this about setbacks: They train you to survive setbacks. Consider adversity an important part of your preparation, along with daily repetition of key activities and steady escalation of complexity and challenge. Also: The Spaniard provides insight into how to eat a salad while holding a crying baby.