Review: Georges St. Pierre, The Way of the Fight

Yesterday I read Georges St. Pierre's new book, The Way of the Fight (Harper Collins, ISBN 9781443413466).

Not a pure autobiography in the usual sense of the word, in this book St. Pierre writes about scenes from his life and some of his formative influences.  As he describes them, these are the Mother, Mentor, Master, Maven and Conscience, which correspond to chapters about his childhood with comments from his maman (Mother), and then chapters with his first real sensei, Kristof Midoux (Mentor), his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu teacher, John Danaher (Master), his coach, Firas Zahabi (Maven), and his friend, Rodolphe Beaulieu (Conscience). 

Ever the consummate professional, critics of St. Pierre's performance in the ring have complained that he lacks the killer instinct, saying that he plays it safe and doesn't take unnecessary risks.  He wins, to be sure, but he doesn't finish opponents, or at least, he hasn't finished opponents since his 2009 fight against BJ Penn.  After reading this book, I better understand why.

St. Pierre is a master strategist, as well as a master tactician, and he understands how his opponents will fight.  His objective is to get ahead on points so that his opponents are forced to take risks, while taking as few risks as possible himself.  It is a successful strategy, and given the personal risk he faces every time he enters the octagon, (both physically, of getting badly hurt and financially, of losing purse money and endorsement contracts), who is to say that this approach is not sound?  Not I.  I think St. Pierre is one of the more intelligent fighters out there, and it's always a pleasure to watch him at work, disassembling an opponent's game plan and crippling their resolve and will to fight.  You could see this most profoundly in the 2009 Penn fight, when Penn's corner literally threw in the towel, but you could also see it as recently as the 2013 Diaz fight, where Diaz stumbled through 5 rounds of a solid schooling in mixed martial arts at the hand of a master.

More than a pure autobiography, this is a book of philosophy, in which St. Pierre explains his life philosophy as well as his fighting philosophy.  A true polymath, St. Pierre incorporates many disparate elements from eastern teachings, history, geometry, anthropology and martial arts into his approach to life and work, and the combination is what makes him so special and so successful as a fighter.  St. Pierre takes a much more analytical approach to life and work than most people, and certainly, most fighters. 

It is his continual drive to improve that makes him so successful, and also keeps him from the normal life that others enjoy.  I got the very real sense of estrangement from St. Pierre as I read this book.  He must keep an emotional distance from many others in his line of work, both because the profession is a demanding one requiring many hours of work each day, and because anyone who has enjoyed his level of success must be careful to limit access to his inner circle.  The Japanese have a concept of masks - the public mask, that others see, and the private mask, that only few ever witness.  With St. Pierre, his public mask is on almost all the time, and the glimpses of his private mask are tantalizingly few, granted only occasionally, and only to the privileged inner sanctum.

It's a pity, really, because St. Pierre comes across as a very loyal, very intelligent, and very likable guy in this book, if tremendously driven.  Almost obsessively driven, in fact. It would be interesting to get a glimpse behind the curtain, but it's unlikely that this will ever happen, at least so long as he is competing professionally in MMA.  Too bad - he seems like the kind of person who would have some interesting things to say about history or physical anthropology.

If you are hoping to understand what makes St. Pierre successful, this book will give you a bit of information that will cause you to re-watch his fights with a fresh eye.  If you are hoping to understand what makes St. Pierre the man the way he is, this book will not give you much.  The book is, after all, written for the public mask of GSP, the fighter and the brand, not Georges St. Pierre, the man.

This book is as much about delivering on the GSP brand as all of his other very well-thought out marketing activities.  As a person, St. Pierre understands that he is the product, and this book is intended to reinforce the brand rather than illuminate the person.

Within these limitations, though, this was a surprisingly well written book, and a very enjoyable read.  I suspect that not only followers of MMA would enjoy this book, but also scholars of philosophy, and anyone who wonders what it is that makes the truly successful succeed.

A wonderful counterpoint to Sam Sheridan's The Fighter's Heart (Grove Press, ISBN 9780802143433) and The Fighter's Mind (Grove Press, ISBN 9780802145017), this book made me want to adopt some of St. Pierre's success strategies - - his visualization, and his goal setting, and his work ethic.  As St. Pierre writes in his opening, every single morning takes root the night before.  It makes me wonder what I can do tonight to make myself more successful tomorrow.

The Power of Habit

I have been reading the book The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg) on the elliptical machine recently.  Sometimes non-fiction can be a little dry and tedious, but this is a very enjoyable - and informative - book.

Those who know me know that I was a person who had some extremely bad habits when it came to food and exercise.

My habit when it came to exercise was to avoid it - at all costs.  My habit when it came to food was to indulge in high fat, high carb, high sugar foods, to the point of physical discomfort.  I would skip meals during the day and then binge at night when I got home from the office.

I had known that I needed to do something about my incredibly unhealthy lifestyle for a long time.  After all, you can only make excuses for not participating in life for so long before it starts to sound hollow.  I was not housebound, but I was dangerously close to it - - it was just too painful and exhausting to do many things. When my friend's chair collapsed under me at that dinner party last January, though, I knew things had to change. 

I have been working out since January, and working out without missing a workout since May.  What is interesting to me is that somewhere along the way, around July, the workouts stopped being tedious work, and started being part of my daily routine.  My workouts are not enjoyable to me, as such, but they're such an automatic part of my routine that I hardly ever seriously consider skipping.

Similarly, somewhere last spring I began to embrace vegetables.  Perhaps not with the fervour that I embrace cheese (!), but vegetables began making their presence known in meals last spring, and they're still part of my daily routine today.

My gradual lifestyle change has been a slow, incremental process, a little improvement at a time.  What I have never really understood until reading The Power of Habit is why I had the habits I did, how my behaviours reinforced these habits, and how habits can be changed.

Especially interesting to me are the author's comments regarding planning and visualization.  Apparently one very effective way to change eating habits is to keep a food diary.  The same could be said for reducing spending - - keep a spending log.  What these things do is make us aware of what we are doing, allowing us to make different, more conscious choices.  So many of our behaviours are unconscious, it is only by making a point of highlighting what we are doing that we can effectively change.

I started keeping a food diary with the MyFitnessPal app in July, and it was an eye-opening experience.  Well, initially horrifying, when I realized what I was consuming, and then eye-opening.

Putting my food in a diary made me accountable for what I was eating.  I had no excuses for making poor food choices, especially since there are so many points during each day when I can take corrective action.  If I am running high by lunch time, I can cut out snacks, or I can cut down on the dinner.  Worse case scenario, I could even add extra exercise if required.

This is not to say that I do not go over my target calories at times - - that happens to everyone.  But I am much more in control of what is going into my body than at any other point, which is a marvel.

Another interesting point in the book is the discussion about the importance of positive visualization.  Habits apparently arise in part because we anticipate a positive outcome from our actions.  Smokers are not physiologically addicted to nicotine within 10 hours of their last cigarette, but the emotional hook is terribly addictive - - the positive visualization of the pleasure of that first cigarette of the day is what keeps them lighting up.

To change habits, therefore, it is not enough to go through the motions (although that helps).  We have to visualize the positive results of our actions to really see an impact.  In my routine, I visualize entering each of my workouts into my various fitness apps and seeing progress charted out - - either lower blood sugar, or lower weight, or longer workouts, or whatever.  I also visualize how I will look when I reach my goal weight.

When my workouts are difficult, this kind of positive visualization really helps me push through.  Checking off another workout and continuing my workout streak is sometimes the only thing keeping me on that elliptical machine.

What the book also notes is that as new habits are established, they get easier over time.  Willpower is like a muscle that can be developed with practice.  In other words, each day that I avoid late night snacking makes it easier to avoid late night snacking in the future.

This book is really helping me to intellectually understand the things I am finding successful.  And knowledge is power.  Understanding why I act the way I do enables me to own my actions in a way that was not possible before.