Demetrious Johnson, one of the best to ever compete in MMA regardless of division, hasn’t always been willing to discuss his mindset.
On Monday, the former UFC flyweight champion and ONE Championship flyweight grand prix champion took to Instagram to rant about an experience with a new vehicle purchase, why his mindset allowed him to find the positives throughout a frustrating situation – and hopes the story will help others change their perspective in life.
During the video, he tells a story about how he hoped to drive his newly purchased diesel truck to Washougal, Wash., to watch his son participate in a motocross racing event, but issues with a leak prompted a trip back to the dealership.
As the mechanics worked on the vehicle, Johnson spoke with another man in the waiting room who was also upset with vehicle troubles of his own.
“I’m sitting there in the waiting room for two or three hours, well, more like two, on my son’s birthday, and there was another gentleman there,” Johnson started. “He’s been there for like five hours, and he was pretty pissed off. So I told him my story about what’s going on and he said, ‘Dude, if I were you, I woulda came here pissed off, I woulda been, blah, blah, blah…cussing out the salesperson, cussing out the dealership.’”
“Dude, it’s all a mindset,” Johnson explained to the man. “It’s an honest mistake, and yes, I coulda came in here and act irate, but I feel like if you’re honest and you’re modest about the situation, you’re gonna get good customer service, you’re gonna get good feedback. Just be a human to another human.”
Johnson received word from the mechanics that there was a fuel leak that would not be fixed in time for him to make the trip with the vehicle as he hoped. Instead of calling for a ride back home, Johnson decided to find the positive in the situation and used his own two wheels to run the four miles back home.
“The Lord has blessed me with healthy legs, healthy body, where I can – it’s a four-mile run from Ford to my house,” Johnson explained. “I’m not gonna call an Uber, I’m not gonna call my wife and have her load up all the kids. She’s at home trying to get Tyron’s cake ready and clean the house. I said, ‘You know, I’m blessed,’ and the mindset, I’m blessed, I can just run four miles, even though I didn’t plan on running four miles.”
“I felt on this long jog home that having a good mindset in life will help you guys tremendously,” Johnson continued. “If you’re having negative thoughts or anything like that, just push it out and try to look for the positive thoughts or the positive things that are going in your life, because if you have a horrible mindset and you’re always negative, and ‘poor me’ this and ‘poor me’ that, ‘I wish I woulda had that,’ or ‘I wish I woulda did this,’ and da, da, da…it’s not gonna get you anywhere.”
It’s rare to see Johnson open up like this about his approach to things in life, but his story here makes sense. Throughout the ups and downs of his fighting career, he has never been one to take a loss too hard, and always seemed to immediately find the lessons and move forward. It’s a wise approach from one of the most successful fighters to ever do it.