Shane Mosley Jr. Explores Discipline, Family, and Life Beyond Boxing
Speaker 1 0:00
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Zandra Polard 0:43
Good morning Las Vegas. It's Sandra Pollard, it's where I am. Yes, the show that brings you information about mental health and wellness, we're gonna work on the wellness piece today. Have a wonderful guest in studio today. Shane Mosley, Jr, ding, ding, ding. Thank you for being here.
Unknown Speaker 1:11
Thank you for having me. I
Zandra Polard 1:12
appreciate it. Oh, man, so I want to talk about discipline. You know a lot about that, right? Being a boxer training, you got to know about discipline, right? Yeah, so I have to say that we met because Shane was training my son, and my son, at the time, was not doing very well in school, and so he missed out on a lot of days of boxing because it was like, if you're not doing the school work, you're not going to boxing. Yeah? But eventually he got that discipline, and it transitioned over, yeah. Thank God, good. So I want you to talk to us more about discipline, how it came into your life. We know, of course, because of your father, sugar Shane Mosley, yeah, yeah. What is that like? Like? How did you learn the discipline and how did it transition for you in other areas of your life?
Speaker 2 2:16
How I would say I learned discipline is probably just setting my goal to be a bike, a boxer, you know, and then from there, you realize you have to do certain steps to get certain places. And then you prioritize your time accordingly. And so with being a boxer, especially if you trying to be successful at it. You have to, you know, set your time accordingly and make sure that your time is utilized the best way possible and not distracted, and then just get it done. Yeah. So, okay, well,
Zandra Polard 2:54
what about, like, even your diet, right? So I know that's a big thing, because you have to make weight and all of these things. What is it like? How are you disciplined with your diet? So
Speaker 2 3:06
for me, it's not very difficult as far as diet is concerned, because I, I guess I learned this from my dad. You know, boxers do X, right? When you think of like, when you're, you know, playing a game, right? This is how the game is played. So when it comes to boxing, it's the same format in my mind. It's like, this is what boxers do. This is who I am as an athlete, this is who I am, and this is what I do. So it's not like anything hard. It's actually I feel like, if I didn't have that framework in my mind, like it would be a lot more difficult, because it's if you know who you are, if you have in your mind, like this is, I'm a boxer. I do this. Boxers stay consistent with their diet. They train, you know, two, three times a day, and they do the XYZ. It's not even a thought. It's not something that I have to like reinforce. It's just who I am
Zandra Polard 4:00
right. So you had the opportunity of growing up around it, right. So for those who have not right, what would you say to them? I would say,
Speaker 2 4:10
try to put some type of framework in mind, or have somebody that you look up to, that can, that you can kind of, I guess, mimic or have somebody do it with you, okay? You know, I mean, so like, teamwork is always a good thing, right? Somebody keeps you accountable, like, like a friend, or like somebody like, hey, checking up on you. Hey, have you done this? You know, XYZ? Or you can say, Oh, this is what this person does. I'm gonna do it just like them. I'm gonna follow what they do. Or, you know, some people would just have amazing fortitude, and then just, this is what I'm doing.
Zandra Polard 4:45
Yes, yes. Well, you know, I invited you to the studio because you have been doing community work. You've come to or you've gone to some of the schools in the Las Vegas area and spoken to the children or the students you. And I wanted you to bring some of that information here, okay, because you came to my school, yes, yes, you came to my school, and administration was just like, wow, yeah, what he's given the kids, and they were listening. You know, being a mentor for other people is so important, yeah, yeah. So what made you start doing that?
Speaker 2 5:20
Well, I wanted to tell them that, at least my message, because as a professional boxer, my career and my record is not perfect, and nobody is right. And I wanted to relay that to them do do whatever you want to do, and expect that you are not going to do everything perfectly. Expect that you are going to fail at certain things. And like they say, fail forward. You know, don't, don't, don't. Fail backwards, right? If you fail, fail and you say, Okay, what did I do here that is going to that helped me back or what is it going to do? What did I do? Didn't I do? That is going to prevent me from moving forward. What have I learned from Exactly? What have I learned? And so when you look at it like that, and you don't have any um, weighing of it, I think that you can, you can better yourself and better any situation, right? Because no situation is good or bad, it just is right. And so if you look at it like that, like this is my situation. This is what it is. This is what I have to do. Where am I trying to get to, and how do I get there, from there, right? And so that's the kind of mindset I had to have after taking losses. Okay, I lost. I'm not terrible. I'm not, you know, horrible. I'm not a terrible boxer. None of those things, right? I just lost. How did I lose? Okay, that's how I lost. What do I have to do to win? What do I have to do to get back to where I was trying to go? And that's what you kind of have to do, and have a framework. Because unfortunately, in the world that we live, I think a lot of people believe that you have to be perfect. You have to show how great everything is all of the time, yes, especially in Western culture, yeah. And I think also, too, we have this grading system of this is good and this is bad. And like I said, like it just it really just is. There's no situation that that is good or bad. It just how you frame it, how you see it, how you perceive it, and how you use it. And I think that you know you should be looking at it that way, as far as for performance or for anything, for that matter, right? Because you could have a terrible conversation with a friend, and, you know, that could help your relationship if you choose to, yes, yes, right? Or you can, you know, fail a test and then go, you know, like,
Zandra Polard 7:54
you can throw it in the trash, yeah, you can review it exactly and do better than that. I'm
Speaker 2 7:59
never gonna let this happen again, right? And there's some people because they they look at it like, good or bad. They go, I have this horrible grade. Yeah, I'm terrible, you know, I mean, they like grade themselves for that. Or I had a horrible, you know, conversation with my friend and and, Oh, I hate them. Now it's like, no, like, what? How do we? How do we elevate? How do we, if you want to keep that relationship, how do we elevate
Zandra Polard 8:20
and what you're explaining is a fixed or growth mindset, yes,
Speaker 2 8:24
yeah, yeah. And if you have that, I feel like it can better your situation or yourself and many areas of your life exactly
Zandra Polard 8:33
I love it. So what are some things that you're doing new? What are you incorporating into your life? Along with boxing, you're an older young man, yeah, and many things we come to take on in life. And so what is new for you?
Speaker 2 8:52
Well, what is new for me is, I mean, I have a new son. Thank you. That takes a whole lot of, you know, patience, and especially with all of the kids, because I have four so, you know, like having that understanding with everyone and every single one of them is different, you have to speak to them or handle them all differently, and you have to have patience with him, so that that takes up a lot of my time. Yeah, and balancing
Zandra Polard 9:24
that 100% you know, you were telling me earlier that you're not sleeping so well, because you have the two year old, and then you have the baby, yes, yeah, and then the two year old is a girl, right? Yeah. Her name is Jewel. So jewel, I'm sure, is pulling on for your attention with the new baby, yeah. And so how do you give her her time?
Speaker 2 9:46
You know, she loves her dolls, and she loves going outside, you know. So we I take her outside, or I'll take her, you know, on walks and things like that. And then I. You know, play with her and her and just her, yeah, her dolls and stuff like that. And so just spending that one on one time with them, making them feel seen and heard. It doesn't have to be for very long, but just if they, if you say, Hey, I'm, you know, going to hang out with you and and they feel that that quality time, yeah, absolutely,
Zandra Polard 10:19
we all need it. Yes, 100%
Speaker 2 10:20
Yeah. I think also too, when I've had a conversation with my wife about, like, quality time, and I think a lot of it is just framework, as far as, like, telling somebody, Hey, I just want to spend 30 minutes with you. We don't have to
Zandra Polard 10:35
without making a baby.
Speaker 2 10:40
Well, maybe. You know, like, you know, just having a conversation, when you tell somebody hey, like, Yeah, let's go for a walk, right? It really and makes them feel that way. You could have walked with them earlier that day, but if you have that framework and say, hey, I want to walk with that intention exactly, it makes them feel much better. So I definitely try to do that with my my kids. I definitely try to do that with my wife, because me, we all so my kids are homeschooled, and my wife is a stay at home mom, so we're around each other a lot. Oh, wow, we're around each other quite a bit. And, you know, so I, you know, I used to say, oh, you know, I hang out with you all the time I'm here, yeah. And she was like, well, like, you don't ever make me feel like I like, like, you separate time, just for me. And so that made me think, Okay, I have to, you know, say, hey, like, I want to hang out with you and do X, Y, Z, on purpose. Yeah. And it was like, I had done that before. Like, right? Like, I like, like, let's just say it was like, watching a movie. We watch movies together all the time. Yeah, right, yeah. But if I say, Hey, I would love to watch a movie with you. Like, let's, let's let you know. Let's go to the room, watch it. Watch a movie, right? It means that much more to somebody. And I think that that's the same with like, your time. That's the same with, like, if you're going to be successful at something, right, you say, Hey, I'm going to do this at this time, right? I'm setting out this time for whether it be training, whether it be a specific, you know, studying I do, like, breaking down films, as far as, like, who I'm going to fight, right? So, like, like, Hey, I'm gonna do this. I'm doing this. I'm doing breath work, whatever the case is, right? And you and you frame out that work for yourself, and then you have you can actually then it means more to you. But even if you're doing those same things and you're not framing it out, I feel like your mind almost misses it. And so I think that's important when you're being successful, like, Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be like, let's just say it's studying, right? I'm gonna study this, and I'm gonna do this. And you plan out that, you put it in your schedule, you make sure, like, like, hey, it's there, and that will help you to be better in any, in anything. Yeah, right. I have a mental coach, and he tells me all the time, like, you know, like planning, like, just like, putting your calendar, plan it, whether it be like, you know, walking with your your your joy, yeah, your daughter watching a movie with, yeah, why exactly plan that? If it's studying tape, plan it. And because it means that much more to you, because you have decided this is what I'm doing with my time. That's
Zandra Polard 13:22
right. I love it, and we talk about that all the time. Yes, on the show, do you journal at all?
Speaker 2 13:28
I have before it's a much more difficult thing. Like, I like the voice recording, or, like, oh, writing for some reason, like I feel like sometimes, for me, it gets far away.
Zandra Polard 13:43
Yeah, well, you know, sometimes, like, when we're writing it, we feel like we have to spell the word right. We have to put down the correct, you know, right? You have to just free write right, then revisit it. Yeah, yes, maybe try that. I don't know, but if the voice thing works, hey, you know, it's a new era. Yeah, yeah, what you got to do?
Speaker 2 14:01
And, I mean, like, like this, right? We're speaking, you know, our truth to the to the world, right? Yeah, and it sticks. And so I guess it's the same, like, you know, concept, you're, like, speaking to your phone. But when
Zandra Polard 14:14
you, when you speak into your phone, do you go back and listen to, oh yeah, you do, okay,
Speaker 2 14:18
oh yeah. Like, I have so many memos of me listening to, oh, that's one. Like, that's one of the things that I do with my my coach. And so, like, you know, like, he finds that that's better for me to do it like this. Hey,
Zandra Polard 14:30
y'all. So we're doing a mic check earlier, and he was trying to act like his voice didn't sound good. Oh, it's just my regular voice. Yes, testing, 123, love it. So anyway, I want to ask you also, do you feel like I want to ask you, growing up, did you get that personal time? Do you feel like you know you're carrying on a pattern, or are you making up for not having that time?
Speaker 2 14:58
I feel. Feel that I am trying to make up for that time. Okay, my dad was obviously there, but my dad was a kind of guy that was like, you know, he went away for a training camp, you know, when he was doing his business, he was doing his you know, he was doing his thing, he was focused on that. And I'm the opposite, you know, I don't go away for camp. I stay home. I see my kids every single day. They come with me to work. They come with me to the boxing gym. They come with me everywhere. And I love it that way. You know, I don't feel like it takes for me. I feel like it empowers me. I want them to see me and every everything that I do, I want them to be inspired by it. They can do anything that they want to do, and so that means a lot to me for them to
Zandra Polard 15:48
be to say something about this as a mother and watching my child fight like no mother ever says, oh, I want my son to be a boxer, right? Right? We don't say that, you know, we don't want our kids to be hurt, right? You know, what was it like when you told your father or your mother, yeah, that you wanted to be a fighter? What did each of them say? My
Speaker 2 16:10
mom never wanted me to fight. Yeah, no one, yeah, never exactly. She didn't want me to fight. And my mom specifically told me, If you want to go, I'm not going to support it. You can. You can figure it out your own, your your own way. So which I love her for, and I utilize that, and even with my kids, for things that they want. If you want to go get it, figure it out. My son asked me to buy him a monkey. I could easily buy him a monkey, but I told him. I said, Listen, I'm not buying you a monkey, but if you raise the money, you can get the monkey for yourself. Okay? And so the monkey was like, $1,500 he said, I'm 11. I can't get that. Well, if you have that mindset, you won't be able to but if you, if you change that mindset and figure out a way that you can do that, whether it be a lemonade stand, whether that's, you know, washing cars, whatever, whatever, you can figure it out. If it means that much, you figure it out. That's right, and that's what I did, right? I used to literally ride my bike from my house, which was very far from the boxing gym workout, and then have to ride my bike all the way back home. That's right. It was 15 Wait, 15 miles each, each way. So 30 miles all together on top of training and working out,
Zandra Polard 17:21
you hear that, Julius, that's my son. Yeah, right.
Speaker 2 17:24
And so if it means that much you you'll figure out a way. And so I think in putting that, I think, was very empowering for me at the time, I didn't feel like it. But how old were you when I first started marketing? 15 years old. Okay, yeah, okay. And so I had to figure out a way. And what did dad say, figure it out. Okay,
Zandra Polard 17:43
so they left you to your own device. Yeah, luckily,
Speaker 2 17:47
later on, my grandmother, who, you know, I loved, she eventually bought me a car and stuff like that. And that helped when I turned, like, 17. But like, you know, obviously, if I want to go, I had to figure it out. And if I needed anything, I had to figure it out. And so it made me really, really desire it much more. It made me want to figure it out. So
Zandra Polard 18:07
you said your kids are homeschooled. Were you homeschooled as well?
Speaker 2 18:10
I wasn't. I was actually speaking of discipline. I went to military school and things like that. Okay, I also went to regular school, but regular public school, I should say, but I went my sixth grade year and my eighth grade year to military school. I loved it. Oh, okay, yeah, it was just very expensive. So my parents was like, Yeah, send them
Zandra Polard 18:36
to military school. Straighten his tail out.
Speaker 2 18:41
So and I loved it. I think, I think was great. A lot of discipline, a lot of brotherhood, which was important and so. But the reason why I wanted to do my kids in homeschool is because I wanted them to, you know, learn from us, have that bond. Obviously, it helps when I'm going to, you know, anywhere we have to go, like, they don't, we don't have to, you know, pull them out of school or have an excuse, or anything like
Zandra Polard 19:10
that. We there's a lot of traveling involved. Yeah, 100%
Speaker 2 19:14
and so. And also, too, I believe that, you know, I can give them the education that I want to give them right as far as, like, if I want them to have a higher learning, I can implement that. If I want them to do ahead, like, you know, seventh grade. My kid is in sixth grade. If I want him to do seventh grade work, I could do that right. Or if I want him, you know, on track to be in high school learning like, or finish school at a certain age, I can do that. So I think that is important, right? Like, we should have control over that, right? I believe that you should have control over where your kid goes to school and what they're learning and all of those things. And, you know, unfortunately, a lot of people don't care, but it's very important, because you're giving them the. That for their life. And I'm I'm telling my kids like, you can choose the life that you want, yeah.
Zandra Polard 20:05
But a lot of times I'm going to tell you, you know, it's used as a babysitting tool, oh, yeah, yeah. And also is used as you getting on my nerves and you need to be somewhere else. I just want to throw that out there, because that's true. You know, we don't all have that same mindset because of different circumstances.
Speaker 2 20:27
I 100% agree, but I do agree with what you're saying. Yeah, no, absolutely. And you know, I think that if you can tolerate your kids, and I think it's important, right, to empower them
Zandra Polard 20:42
almost spit out my coffee. Yeah, yeah, right, all right, so moving on, yes. So just thinking of the boxing as an exercise, okay, right? Physically. You had mentioned to me before, when you were at the school about stretching. So I make jokes from time to time that I'm super stiff. Yeah, you know, I can barely touch my toes. And one therapist was telling me that a lot of times that can be from trauma, okay, okay, and I'll take that. But you were also explaining to me, as far as movement of the body right, that you can't just pull a rubber band right, right, a cold rubber band. Do you remember that? Yes, I do, because it'll snap right. You have to ease into it, yeah. So physically, tell us about just movement of body,
Speaker 2 21:37
yeah. So you have to warm up your body before you stretch it. Like, I think a lot of the common misconception is that stretching first is good. But like, if you get something like a van, for instance, you put in the fridge or freezer, and then you pull it, you probably break it, so you want to warm that up. So usually, like, what, for instance, I would come to the UNLV track and do sprints and things like that. I run a mile first before, before stretching. Yeah?
Zandra Polard 22:07
Because in school, it's like stretch first and then you run your mile, but it's actually the opposite.
Speaker 2 22:12
Yeah, you want to actually go warm up the muscles first, and then you go into stretching. And depending on what you're doing, you would want a dynamic stretch, which is a moving stretch. So like, for instance, like, you're like, like, as you're like, moving your body. You're elongating your body. So let's just say, if you were doing lunges or something like that, that's considered like a stretch as well as a strength thing. And, or, yeah, there's different ways you can do dynamic stretching and, and then afterwards, you'd usually want to, after your workout, you'd usually want to do a static stretch. What type of stretch? Static, static. Okay, so which is the normal stretch where, like, people touch their toes and wait 10 seconds? Yeah, that's considered a static stretch, because you hold these things, so that would be kind of the difference. So I usually do, like, a, you know, warm up, dynamic stretch, and then get into my workouts, and I feel like, especially like, the older I've gotten, the longer you take on those dynamic warm ups.
Zandra Polard 23:24
Yeah? All right, so we're talking to Shane Moseley Jr, was talking to us about discipline and how it transitions to different areas in our lives, yeah, so what are some other ways you feel your discipline has transitioned in your life. You mentioned family, yeah. You mentioned your stretching, yeah, yeah. You've mentioned your diet, yeah, family, family time. Give us one more
Speaker 2 23:57
well, my faith, plays a, plays a, plays a part in all of those areas, I feel like that discipline from my faith carries on into all of the other areas. Okay, right? I I pray with my family. I pray with my boys before they go to sleep. We pray after every before every meal. I pray with my wife in the morning.
Zandra Polard 24:21
Oh, wow, yeah, that's discipline. When I was a kid, we had to pray in the morning and at night when we woke up, yeah? And we before we went to bed, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 24:32
You know, it's interesting. What I feel like that has done for my relationship with my kids and my wife is when I pray with them, and I'm praying over over them, or we pray over our meals. It just shows how much we care about each other and how much I care as the, you know, head of household, yeah, that
Zandra Polard 24:52
definitely would make you the head of household. Yeah, you
Speaker 2 24:54
know, you you feel like they feel like, you know, I'm protected, yes. And. So you know, I feel like that is my role as as you know, the Father, the husband, and you know, to protect my family, and I do that with praying. And I feel like, you know, that also empowers my my fighting as well, right? Because I feel like when I am fighting, it is like a spiritual battle. It's everything that person is as a human being, and whatever his soul is against everything that my I am and my soul is, and we take that and we battle.
Zandra Polard 25:33
Wow. Okay. But do you think okay? So there's this controversy of athletes and praying and thinking that God has made them win. No, I don't feel what is, what is your take on that?
Speaker 2 25:48
I don't feel that God is this. God also gives us choice, right? In everything that we do. We have free will we choose to do this. God empowers us to be who we are our gifts fully. And so we take our gifts and use them accordingly. And so we choose to spiritually, take what we have and fight that person for competition, okay? And so it is competing like everything else, right? Like any other competition. And it's just God empower me
Zandra Polard 26:20
to my to do my best, to do the best of my ability. Okay? I
Speaker 2 26:24
I never am. The one of you know, God give me the strength to hurt this man? Yes, God, give me. God, give me the the strength to do my best, right? And hopefully that is enough. There's no, I don't, I'm not looking for a result. There's no reason for me. It's not, it's not for me to have the result. It's for me to do my best, and it's for me to pray that I do my best. I don't know what. I don't know what is going to happen, right? Like, even when I pray for anything, for my family, I pray for them because I don't know. I pray for them because I care about them, and I want them to be at their best. I don't know what's gonna happen, so I want to protect them. Same with my fighting. I'm gonna do my best. Pray over my myself, over my opponent, that we have the best competition that we could have, and we have accepted the consequences of what our actions are. Oh, wow. Okay, right, yeah. And so like, you know, like we're fighters. It's not like we're, you know, playing basketball, so like that, right?
Zandra Polard 27:26
Oh, you know, that's what I wanted to ask you, too. I wanted to ask you about life beyond boxing, yeah. So I'm trying to explain to my son, boxing is not forever. It's not a forever career.
Speaker 2 27:38
Well, I'll say this. I was actually having this. So that goes back to my faith as well. If you believe in Jesus, right? Jesus is the only way, right? There's only plan a so I look at that with success as well. I learned that from my father both. I guess there's only one way.
Zandra Polard 27:54
But can you just tell him, if he's listening, you can't box forever. You have to have another source of income. Now, am I wrong?
Speaker 2 28:01
I No, you're not okay, but, but in doing something you like, like, I said, like, right? Like, we talked about all these points, and when you are doing this, there's so many different things that it bleeds into and that you get, you gain from that, okay, that you can transfer, if necessary, okay, into that. But I you know, like, if we're going to college, we don't want to tell our kids, oh, you Well, you got to have a plan B, right? No, this is Plan A. Like, we got to get an education and do X, Y, Z. You don't have a fallback plan, right? That's true. So why? Why in anything else are we telling them that because, I think, because it's physical, but any course that they go through, I mean, we don't know what's gonna happen ever we never know. And you know they would, they tell us that this is a foolproof plan, but and not to have a plan be with this, right? So why not that the same thing on anything that you do, you should have that focus of, I'm going to do this no matter what, and anything you choose to do, because it is your life and you choose to do it, you should do that to the best of your ability, gather all of the skills that you possibly can, and then, if necessary, utilize those skills that you've gathered and transfer further into whatever you're gonna do next. Okay,
Zandra Polard 29:16
well, we're gonna transfer and pick up on this point when you come back. Yes, all right, cool. Well, this is Andre Pollard, thanks everyone for tuning in. You know, I'm here every Saturday at 7:30am Thank you. This is 91.5 jazz and more.
Unknown Speaker 29:33
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