Cody Deaner's Blog: Developing a Champion's Mentality

Words can’t express how nice it feels to get to do this again…

Whenever I speak to kids… I always love giving some lucky volunteers a chance to come up in front of their peers and hold one of my championship belts. I want to give them the chance to feel like a champion… even if it’s just for a few minutes.

I have them come up to the front and help me show the group some classic wrestler "poses" of a few of my heroes when I was a kid growing and becoming passionate about the world of professional wrestling. The smiles on the kids' faces when I do this is worth it every time.

For the last number of years, I haven't had the chance to speak to youth in-person. All of my speaking has been done virtually. My virtual audience is sometimes very large. But, all I see is a small green light on my computer screen. I didn't get into the business of professional speaking to talk to a green light. I did it because I genuinely love interacting with young people and inspiring them. Words can't describe how awesome it is to get to see smiling faces once again.

I like to bring the kids up to the front to pose and hold my belt because the audience always gets a kick out of it. But that's not the real reason. The real reason is that it's an effective tool for me to share some lessons I've learned in my journey of achieving my childhood dream of becoming a professional wrestling champion.

One main lesson I've learned in my journey is how important it is to focus on the POSITIVE rather than the NEGATIVE. I try to instil in kids the importance of developing a champion’s mentality rather than a victim mentality. If we focus on the negative all the time… we develop a victim mentality. A champion has the ability to focus on the positive and use that to drive them forward in their goals.

We live in a world with a lot of struggle and negativity around us. I take it as a privilege that I get to share some positive stories with kids and help them realize that there are still positive people in this world willing to come alongside them and help them.

We all have the power to be a positive influence to those around us if we simply decide to be. You don’t have to be in the “big time” to make a BIG difference.

Sincerely,
​Cody Deaner

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