For me... I feel like gratitude has really helped me to keep perspective on everything. The gratitude of doing what I get to do. The gratitude for my everyday life. The gratitude for simple things.
This is a lonely sport, the more family, the more laughs, and the more fun you can have, the better. At the end of the day, though, it's one man's journey to try and be the best in the world.
Everything happens just like it's supposed to happen; you've just got to roll with it and keep moving forward.
I'm not a guy who typically has an after-party. I like to have pizza in my hotel room with the people that went out to support me.
That's what Dominick Cruz does. He wins decisions and he has that down to a science. He's great at it.
I never compromised my integrity by playing a character. I didn't tweet anybody something crazy. I was just myself, kept winning and stayed ready. I didn't sell my soul.
I believe in my skill 100 percent, that I can go out there and beat Demetrious Johnson and give him the best fight there is.
That's how you continue your passion and find inspiration; getting new ideas, getting new looks and new visions. Those are ways to evolve and stay passionate.
When you're fighting the best, best guys in the world, there's no glaring weaknesses. There's X-factors and there's small openings that you have to prepare for better and that's really it.
I've gone through a lot to get here. I'm doing my job. And that No. 1 ranking next to my name says I'm doing my job better than a good percentage of everyone else.
Once you stop having fun doing it, you start to lose a lot of focus and a lot of motivation. Where, when you love what you do you and feel lucky every day and excited, it helps every little aspect of fighting.
I knew I had to just keep believing, never lose sight of my purpose. As a fighter, you need to be delusional in a way. It keeps you going.
Persevering is a fight. That's what a fight is. You face something, you persevere through it, you meet it head on.
I'm never not motivated to train.
Anytime I can take a fight, I feel good doing it.
When I got into the sport and wrote down my goals, it was never to be a UFC main event or to be a on a UFC main card. It was to be the UFC champion.
My three most impressive fights have been against black belts in jiu-jitsu.
All we have is our talent. That's what's great about the division, you can see things that 125-pound guys can do that some other guys can't. All we have is our skill.
We have physical therapy there now so any fighter with an injury in the UFC can come to Vegas and get treatment every day.
Of course, in Joe Jitsu it is about a lot more than fighting. It depends on their style, their confidence, the way that their hair falls in the morning, the way that their clothes look. It's more state of mind.
