Inspiration: It’s About How Hard You Can Get Hit and Keep Moving Forward

[DISCLAIMER]

*Rocky Balboa (2006) spoilers contained herein.

Photo credit, property of MGM Distribution Co., et al., fair use

Rocky Balboa’s Inspiring Speech

In childhood and early adulthood, I enjoyed films from the Rocky franchise. Among the people with whom I’ve associated, from various walks of life, Sylvester Stallone has ostensibly been a household name. Even those who don’t actually know Stallone, often refer to him as “Sly.”

In any event, I wouldn’t say that I’m a superfan of the Rocky movies, as I was more of a casual viewer. Nevertheless, I could readily recognize Stallone’s voice from the film Rocky Balboa (2006), when recently listening to two hip hop tracks.

On his album, Greatful (2016), lyricist Classified featured a Rocky Balboa sample on the song “It’s Hard to Understand”. A similar sample was used on the album A Closed Mouth Don’t Get Fed (2020), by rapper Smoke DZA on the track “Frankie Carbone”, featuring rapper Nym Lo.

For context, in the Rocky Balboa sample, Rocky Balboa’s son complains about living within his dad’s proverbial shadow of success. A world-famous boxer in the franchise, Rocky literally fought hard for his achievements, as he thusly responds to his son:

You ain’t gonna believe this, but you used to fit right here. [Rocky gesturing to his palm of his own hand] I’d hold you up to say to your mother, “This kid’s gonna be the best kid in the world. This kid’s gonna be somebody better than anybody I ever knew.”

And you grew up good and wonderful. It was great, just watchin’ you. Every day was like a privilege. Then, the time come for you to be your own man and take on the world, and you did! But somewhere along the line, you changed.

You stopped being you! You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you’re no good. And when things got hard, you started lookin’ for something to blame, like a big shadow. 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 you 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!

Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth! But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers, saying you ain’t where you wanna be, because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that, and that ain’t you!

You’re better than that! I’m always gonna love you, no matter what, no matter what happens. You’re my son, and you’re my blood. You’re the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, ya ain’t gonna have a life.

I appreciate that Rocky has influenced hip hop music. Notably, the American Psychological Association thusly regards the inspiration I’ve taken from such influence as the second and third following definitions:

1. the act of drawing air into the lungs.

2. in cognitive psychology, a sudden insight or leap in understanding that produces new, creative ideas or approaches to a problem.

3. the process of being aroused or stimulated to do something, or the quality of being so aroused, as in Her speech gave us the inspiration we needed. —inspirational adj. —inspire vb. —inspired adj.

When practicing Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) in both a personal and professional capacity, I often relay inspirational knowledge, wisdom, and understanding on the virtues of fortitude and resilience, as cited in Rocky Balboa’s inspiring speech.

Contrary to what some people may lead others to believe, given my personal and professional lived experience, many members of generations that have succeeded me are open to inspiration of this sort. Specifically, they’ve accepted my advocacy for two major psychotherapeutic tools.

REBT

REBT uses the ABC model to illustrate that when an undesirable Action occurs and you Believe an unhelpful narrative about the event, it’s your unfavorable assumption, not the occurrence itself, that causes an unpleasant Consequence. This is known as distress or disturbance.

Noteworthy, with virtually any undesirable Action that occurs, it’s your unfavorable Beliefs which cause unpleasant distress or disturbance (Consequence). Given this framing of self-distress and self-disturbance, it’s worth noting that one REBT source states (page 71):

REBT conceptualizes [distress] as healthy even though it is intense. Other approaches to therapy have as their goal the reduction of the intensity of negative emotions. They take this position because they do not keenly differentiate between healthy negative emotions (distress) and unhealthy negative emotions (disturbance).

Now, REBT keenly distinguishes between healthy distress and unhealthy disturbance. Healthy distress stems from your rational beliefs about a negative activating event [Action], whilst disturbance stems from your irrational beliefs about the same event.

Complete elimination of distress is highly unlikely in an impermanent and uncertain world wherein people conceptually suffer, struggle, and battle with, or merely experience hardship. Still, individuals often make matters worse for themselves by disturbing about such instances.

In particular, there are four predominate irrational beliefs which people often use to distress or disturb themselves: global evaluations, low frustration tolerance, awfulizing, and demandingness. When contemplating these unproductive scripts, think of the acronym GLAD.

Additionally, from a psychological standpoint, people distress or disturb themselves using a Belief-Consequence (B-C) connection. Of course, this isn’t to suggest that in the context of the naturalistic or physical world there is no Action-Consequence (A-C) connection.

Now, I invite you to recall that Rocky stated, “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!” This is often the case with the material world.

For instance, from an A-C view, someone literally beats you to your knees (Action), as you sustain significant injuries from the battery (Consequence). I’ve been in a number of physical altercations, as I can attest that one can’t always prevail in a fight. (I’ve lost a bout or two!)

Still, as stated by Rocky, “But it ain’t about how hard you 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!” Unfavorably, some people use B-C connections, without moving forward.

For example, you’re battered (Action), Believe, “I’m worthless, for not defending myself [G], and I can’t bear to have been physically attacked [L], because it’s dreadful [A], so I mustn’t even consider leaving my home again [D],” as you then develop agoraphobia (Consequence).

Addressing how people upset themselves with unhelpful attitudes, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unproductive philosophies of life in order to explore Effective new beliefs. Whereas rigid beliefs cause self-disturbance, flexible beliefs result in an un-disturbed condition.

Imagine that instead of using a self-disturbing narrative, you draw inspiration from Rocky, Effectively believing, “It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, so I can literally and figuratively roll with the punches!” Per Rocky, “That’s how winning is done!”

In similar fashion, REBT uses unconditional acceptance (UA) to relieve self-induced suffering. This is accomplished through use of unconditional self-acceptance (USA), unconditional other-acceptance (UOA), and unconditional life-acceptance (ULA).

Whereas the ABC model is a scientific approach to wellness, UA serves as a philosophical method for un-disturbing yourself. I view the former as an abortive approach to disturbance and the latter as a preventative method. Of course, not all REBT practitioners use the same style as I.

With my approach to REBT, I incorporate author Stephen Covey’s concepts regarding the circles of control, influence, and concern, as well as an area of no concern. UA maps onto the circle of control (USA), circle of influence (UOA), and circle of concern and area of no concern (ULA).

The circle of control encompasses only oneself, the circle of influence encapsulates elements which may be subject to one’s sway, the circle of concern engrosses most matters one can imagine, and the area of no concern relates to all content which isn’t yet imagined.

Regarding your circle of control and USA, you can acknowledge that you have control over how you react to undesirable events. Concerning your circle of influence and UOA, you can admit that not everyone in life will be convinced not to batter you, or not behave meanly and nastily.

Relating to your circle of concern and ULA, even life itself can be a mean and nasty experience. As for your area of no concern, a make-believe realm in which the world actually is all sunshine and rainbows, that’s a matter of your imagination—it simply isn’t truth about reality.

Conclusion

In this blogpost, I’ve drawn inspiration from Rocky Balboa’s inspiring speech to his son, as sampled in two hip hop songs. When practicing REBT, I use similarly inspiring tools which promote fortitude and resilience. These techniques relate to the ABC model and UA.

Although anecdotally, I’ve found that members of younger generations often accept inspiration which Rocky used with his son. If for nothing more, members of Generations Z and Alpha can be inspired to get hit and keep moving forward, if their predecessors have likely failed them.

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

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