Georges St-Pierre made a career of showing his physical toughness within the octagon. The lesser discussed aspect is how much his mental strength made him capable of having this career, let alone dominating and being considered one of the all-time mixed martial arts fighters.
Affectionately known as GSP, the Canadian legend is looking to help those seeking to learn more about mastering their mind at an event ‘GSP: The Instinct of a Champion’ in Toronto on Sept. 29. Fans can attend, hear his insights, and also ask whatever questions they may have.
Tickets are currently available here.
St-Pierre overcame a lot of bullying in the early stages of his life and faced doubts at the height of his UFC career. He spoke with Sportscasting to share some of the insights he hopes to share plenty more of at the event in a couple months.
Editor’s note: The interview has been condensed for length purposes.
Sportscasting (SC): What made you want to give back to the community and the fans in this way?
Georges St-Pierre (GSP): More than a decade ago, I had a book (GSP: The Way of the Fight) and it was a bestseller so I thought this would be a great idea. On top of that, when you write a book, it was more than a decade ago, you don’t have a human touch with people. Now, with this project, not only am I going to be on stage but also the fans will be able to ask questions. Now, we live in a world that’s dominated by social media, everything is online now. I think it’s important for me now because I’m a good, old fashioned guy, I like to meet my fans in person, I like the human touch.
ST. PIERRE’S EARLY OBSTACLES
SC: You have a quote that greatness is built. When did you first start to build your greatness?
GSP: Right at the beginning. My upbringing, how things started for me, I used to be a much different person than I am today. I remember a time when I was looking at myself and I didn’t like what I saw but I fell in love with who I wanted to become. I’m still not that person yet but I’m closer than what I was before. That’s my ultimate goal in life. We talk about the trophy, the medal, the belt, these for me, it’s all materialism. For me, it’s my close circle, my family, my health, that’s what is truly important in life for me.
SC: You faced a lot of bullying and trying circumstances as a child. How did you not succumb to that negativity?
GSP: You are who you are today but you’re different than what you were a year ago or 10 years ago. You’re not who you were 10 years ago, you need to learn how to forgive yourself and to improve and get better. That’s how I see life, as a journey. I use martial arts to get me better as a career, martial arts brought me confidence through self defense. Then, after I started martial arts as a self defense, it transformed into a passion and then that’s how I earn a living. That’s how I made my brand but a lot of people can relate to that. There’s a lot of different tricks and concepts that I use in terms of performance that people will be able to learn in our project and apply into their own lives.
ST. PIERRE’S BIGGEST ADVICE
SC: Can you share one of those tricks?
GSP: I used to deal with stress and fear because being a martial arts fighter is very stressful. Before every fight I was terrified, I was afraid. I remember the sports psychologist used to tell me, ‘Oh, stop saying you’re afraid. You’re excited.’ I don’t know if it was a language barrier back then because the guy was speaking English and my English was not very good back then because I’m not feeling excited. I’m excited for other reasons but not having to fight Saturday night and not knowing if I’m going to be badly hurt or winning the ultimate prize.
Then I realized there is no courage without fear and I should not be afraid to admit that I’m afraid. When I make peace with it, I also realized that fear can be controlled and if you learn how to control your fear, you can improve your performance with it. The way you learn to control your fear is building up your confidence with the preparation. If you’ve done everything you know you can do, you checkmark everything, you know you’re the best version you can be, you can go in with an empty mind and have faith in yourself and confidence.
Confidence is not the absence of fear, it’s knowing you have what you need in order to succeed. That’s one of the tricks, in a nutshell, that I give you of how I overcome fear and the stress that I had to face every single fight in my career.
ST. PIERRE ON THE BENEFITS OF SEEKING HELP
SC: When did you know you needed help from a psychologist?
GSP: I knew at a very young age. When I was looking around, when I started to do this, when I chose this as a career. I was looking around and I see everybody, they were happy, excited, and I felt like I never fit in. I was afraid, I was not happy, if I wanna do this as a career, it’s gonna be a long, bad journey if I feel that way all the time. That’s how I started to see a sports psychologist.
Also, I’m a person that really believes in esoteric and metaphysics. I believe in the force of visualization, the force of the mind, a lot of people will roll their eyes but for me it works. I have a lot of tricks to visualize what I want.
Of course, when you have a goal, even if you visualize it as much as you want, it’s not the goal that’s going to come towards you, it’s you who needs to move towards the goal. The fact that you visualize, and there’s a way that I visualize and do these things, it helped me get and figure out a path to manage to get to my goal. I think we very often as an athlete we talk about the importance of the physical training but the mental training is just as important.
SC: Have you felt the impact you’ve had on others by opening up about the mental hurdles you faced?
GSP: Yeah, there’s a lot of guys that came and talked to me. Guys that are actually fighting right now and are active. Combat sports are very egotistical, people don’t want to admit that they’re afraid or that they’re scared. They’re ashamed to say it and, for me, I felt that if I’m completely honest, there’s nothing more scary than a man that tells you, ‘Yes, I’m afraid, but I don’t care how I feel because no matter what happens Saturday night, I’m gonna make that walk and be the best version of myself and there’s nothing you can do about it.’
I think, for me, that’s a lot more scary than a guy who will tell you, ‘I’m not scared, I’m gonna kick your butt.’ For me, this is a lack of confidence, this is someone who’s pretending. It’s either he’s a liar or not smart because he can’t see the worst scenario possible or maybe he’s crazy. I’m not crazy, I’m not ignorant, I think I’m smart enough to understand what I’m getting into.
ST. PIERRE ON TODAY’S FIGHTERS
SC: Is there a current fighter you enjoy watching or resonate with the most?
GSP: Everybody is different, everybody has a unique experience and style. I like to watch a lot of the fighters. Some of the best guys: Ilia Topuria, Islam Makhachev, Merab Dvalishvili, Israel Adesanya, Khamzat Chimayev, there’s a lot of guys. I like to watch all the champions, the best guys, because I can learn from them. I think they all have something great and when I watch them fight, I can learn from them.
