Happy Holidays to you all! This is my favorite time of year with family and friends, and regardless of your life situation, I hope you are able to find some joy and happiness out of this time of year.

As my gift wrapping was dwindling down, the only gifts to package up were a handful of my books being given to my family. I sat there looking at them, kind of in disbelief as I recounted the last 365 days. Rewind a year and I was fresh off my third straight loss. I was completely empty. I had no purpose, no direction. I was essentially waiting to be released from my UFC contract. My brain was frying trying to figure out what was next. Personally, I was happy, but professionally, I was lost.

What did I do? I pivoted. I first heard that term way back in the day when my sister played basketball. A pivot is a change of direction. It’s a change of course. I first heard this term in a professional setting in the book Smartcuts. It talks about how some of the most successful people didn’t necessarily achieve great success by linear movement up a figurative ladder. They zigged and zagged. They pivoted.

Well this past year has been about pivoting for me. Would I prefer to be fighting in the UFC next week in Las Vegas? Probably. Am I happy now? Absolutely.

We don’t always get what we want, but we can make what we want out of what we get.

The result of my pivoting? A new autobiography (Driven) and a budding speaking career.

Pivot. Zig. Zag. Make lemonade out of your lemons. Make chicken soup out of chicken…Call it what you want, but keep moving forward.

When in doubt, listen to Rocky (it’s always helped me), “Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”

Spaniard