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But Coach Fowler doesn’t remember that play because I saved a touchdown; he remembers it because of the kind of wild confidence and fearlessness it exemplified. That one crazy hit was an embodiment of what I was all about. Without giving it a conscious thought, I did more than get a 250-pound beast of a running back out of bounds. I gave someone a concise summary of my personal credit (a term I’ll discuss more later, but, in short, a summation of one’s true dedication and credibility).
    Too often, people say, “If I can only achieve [insert accomplishment here], I will be happy.” This is counterproductive and serves only to lower expectations. Try to resist imposing artificial limits on your dreams.
    A bank might reward the officer who racks up the most new accounts in a month. He might get a bonus or a sweet parking spot for his work. But there might be another officer two cubicles down who starts half the number of accounts but takes extra time with each customer to make sure he sets them up with the right account for their needs. He might discover something about them and put his knowledge to work in making a difference in their lives. Rather than stockpiling awards, that bank officer is expressing his passion in a way that helps not just himself, his customers, and his employer, but his entire community.
    Put simply, you don’t want to be prisoner to a timetable. If you happen to come up short, the artificial deadline creates unnecessary doubt in your abilities. If you beat a deadline, the temptation will be to make the next one more stressful. Work persistently and creatively toward your goals. You’ll know when you’re making progress and moving forward. As time wears on, you’ll be able to gauge the pace of the pursuit and adjust accordingly. It is vital to have goals and create a schedule, but it’s unnecessarily confining to live by a calendar. It’s important to set goals you can completely control, such as waking up at 6:00 A.M. every day and taking your vitamins. It’s equally important to set big goals (dreams) that you can’t completely control, such as winnning a presidential election.
    My professional achievements are a matter of public record, and as someone who has defended world championships—small ones like King of the Cage, big ones like WEC—over an extended period of time, I’m often questioned about pressure and expectations. What’s next? Who’s next? In that context, it can be difficult to explain the way I live my life. Having a belt or a title is not what defines me. Being a public figure and getting recognized as I walk through an airport or eat in a restaurant has changed how other people define me, but not how I define myself. I define myself by my actions, work ethic, and my morals. I live for my supportive family and friends who have helped sculpt my persona and identity.
    So, don’t only set goals like “Salesperson of the Year” or “Employee of the Month.” Short-term achievements are great, but can cloud the issue and get in the way of the bigger purpose. They also establish external forces—bosses, clients, etc.—as judges of your achievements. When artificial achievements become the journey and the destination, you run the risk of losing control of your passion. In other words, if I had been unable to get the 250-pounder out of bounds—which would have been a failure by statistical standards—I like to think Coach Fowler would still remember the incident as an example of what I was all about.

The 5th Law of Power
    Know Yourself
    T he decision to pursue wrestling in college was easy. In fact, you might say it was made for me. I was a good high-school football player. By my senior season I was an all-league cornerback and the third back in our Wing-T offense, but in the back of my head I always knew that no matter how much I loved football, it was never going to love me back in