Joseph Parker talks about mindset, learning from losses and the benefit of change.

WellBeings is the new, go-to resource for all the things you need to feel good. With podcasts and articles that put the play back into every day, WellBeings is made by Dominic Bowden and his partner Esther Cronin – who are traveling the world in pursuit of the tools, shifts and rituals that separate the living from the thriving. Through interviews with the global thought leaders, experts and celebrities in wellness, this is the place to get the most current, science backed information curated just for Kiwis.

One of the most famous quotes about boxing - and about life - is from Mike Tyson. “Everybody’s got a plan until you get punched in the face.”

One man who knows a lot about this is Heavyweight Champion Boxer Joseph Parker. From the highs of winning world titles to the lows of losing focus in front of the world, he spoke candidly to Dominic Bowden on WellBeings about how planning is one of his top tools - both in and out of the ring - but knowing how to quickly adjust when things don’t go to plan.

When things are not going the way that you want them to, what do you do?

For me, personally, it’s having different plans in place. If one plan doesn’t work, you’ve got another plan that you can fall on. If that one doesn’t work, you have another plan, similar to when you’re fighting, if you’re going to a fight, and it’s not going your way, you always have to have a plan B, plan C, Plan D, and the list goes on. So as always having been prepared, if it doesn’t go your way.

I want to quickly talk about mindset. What are the things or tricks that you’ve learned to help you get in flow?

Mindset for me is like right now, going into camp: I have the best environment, I have the best training, a nutritionist, and a strength and conditioning trainer. I’ve got a good environment, good people around me, and that all adds to the mindset going into a fight.

For me, mindset is the preparation that prepares you for going into battle. I’ve also got a psychologist I work with once a week and talk to and open up with and he simplifies a lot of things and makes it easy for me to understand. And when I go into battle, I’m clear-headed. There’s nothing much in there, just my brain.

When you think about yourself as a young athlete, what do you think now about some of the struggles you faced back then?

When I look back now, there are a lot of things I want to tell my younger self: how to do this, how to do that, work with this person, work with that person, go to bed on time, eat clean, this and that there’s a lot of things I want to tell. But now that I’m here, and at this age, I feel like I got everything as right as I can get it. And, you know, there’s been a lot of learning along the way.

When you think of the younger you, as a 15-year-old kid, could you have ever imagined that you’d be where you are now?

I’ve always believed I was going to be world champion. My dad always believed I was going to be world champion. I didn’t know when, I didn’t know how, but I always believed it. And it came earlier than I expected. The younger me, no, I did train hard. I travelled the world and I fought all over the world as an amateur and got different medals representing New Zealand. But there was a part of me, the younger me, that didn’t focus, didn’t train, that went out and partied, that went out and had fun. And if I could reverse back, you know, I’ll tell the younger me just to stay focused. I mean, I wouldn’t change anything because everything happens for a reason. But when you do look back, it’s interesting what you go through as a young person, leading to what you’re now.

I want to ask about your dad; what kind of belief does a father have to have to be helping you believe you could be number one, and how important is support in anyone’s journey?

If it wasn’t for my parents’ support, I wouldn’t be where I am today. The belief my father had in me, is like - I don’t know if I’ve even seen it in other fathers that have athletes as children! But his belief in me was telling everyone around us, our family and friends, when I was three years old, that I was going to be a world champion. And he didn’t know if I was going to be tall, if I was going to be strong, if I was going to be any good at boxing but he always said that I was going to be world champion from the age of three. That belief is next level.

How does that impact you as a father?

Just him having that belief and having that sort of faith and just giving everything he could in my life, (for me) to be a good boxer and a good fighter and a good athlete… It shows me I can do the same to my children and be that kind of father for them.

I know that there’s a lot of dads who look up to you; what advice would you share on how to show up for the kids?

Time. When I do get the opportunity to spend time with my kids, I give 100 per cent effort. Whatever it is, whether it’s drawing, whether it’s playing outside, whether it’s on a playground, whether it’s going out doing this and doing that, I give 100 per cent of my time to my kids. And I can see how close we are as a family because every time I leave to go overseas for training camp, my kids cry, and they dread the day that I leave. And I feel like because we have such a close relationship, and I give them time, you can see why it’s so hard for me to leave.

How much is this sacrifice one of the biggest challenges of what you do?

The hardest thing about boxing is the sacrifice of leaving your family, leaving your kids, leaving your wife. It’s sad to say, but I haven’t been to any of the births of my children because of boxing, because of the sacrifice of being away for camp, working towards a fight, training hard and trying to work hard for my family. But my kids, hopefully one day they understand, or they do understand, that this boxing is not going to be forever. And I’m only doing this for another four, five years. And hopefully they’re proud of me when they grow up and realise what I’ve been able to do for our family.

You’re travelling all around the world, sleep is the big thing and getting the right nutrients in, the right movement etc. How do you stay consistent when you’re travelling so much?

It comes back to mindset. My mindset now is to stay active and stay ready. My body is what I need for work and, if I eat bad food, if I don’t train, and if I don’t work out, I’m not doing any favours for myself when it comes to fighting, when it comes to camp. It’s very important for me, even though I’m travelling, if it’s Vegas, if it’s the UK, if it’s Dubai, I’m always in a gym, I’m always trying my best to eat clean. And that comes back to the mindset, mindset is everything. And my mindset now is, I want to give everything I can to boxing for the remainder of the time I have. Four, five years: give it everything I have. And when I leave the sport, I’m not going to turn back and say I wish I did this and I wish I did that. I’m doing it now.

Tell us about some of the guilty pleasures that you do allow yourself every now and then.

I slip up many times. I went ahead, ate chocolate. I had it, my family was there with me. In the UK. I had doughnuts, I had sushi. I had this, I had that, but as long as I stuck to the programme as best I could, I was able to have these slip-ups. And you know we’re all human and these slip-ups are nice.

Any New Zealand sweets you crave when you’re overseas?

I love New Zealand chocolate. I do like Pineapple Lumps as well, and most of all seafood. New Zealand has some of the best seafood. In the UK you can’t really find seafood like New Zealand seafood.

You’re such a great communicator and sometimes as an athlete, that can be really tough. How hard have you had to work on being able to speak your truth?

Very hard. Because in the beginning of your career, you’re shy, you’re nervous, and you don’t really have the confidence within yourself. But I think, as time goes on, and as you progress as a fighter, as a person, as a father, as a son, you start having more confidence within yourself and you can open up, and you can tell others about who you are, and why you do this, and why you do that, and the person that you have become.

You’ve worked with Tyson Fury a lot. Tell us about the man that you know, and what you’ve learned from him.

Tyson for me is, he’s like an older brother; he’s very generous. I moved over to the UK for training camp, and, when I got there, he gave me his house, and he said, “live in this”, and I said, “how much?” And he goes, “for free”. Then he gave me his strength coaches, massage therapists, gave me his gym, gave me all the contacts he had. And he said, use this and be the best fighter you can be. He’s for me, a very generous person, like an older brother. We have a great relationship, and I’m very thankful to have someone like that to support me and back me and help me.

How do you pick yourself up, especially when the New Zealand’s media, everyone is coming down on you? Talk about the lowest point for you in your career, as you look back.

As I look back at my career, the lowest point would be after becoming world champion. In 2016 I became world champion, and everyone thought that was the best feeling. There was the dream, I ticked that box. But after being world champion, I went through exactly the same thing that Tyson Fury went through; the only difference, his one was public, and mine was kept under the radar. Luckily I have a great support team behind me. But the lowest point was 2017. Even though I was fighting, I was fighting at 20 per cent or 10 per cent, because I wasn’t taking it seriously.

Over the last couple of years, the words that you hear come up a lot: anxiety, overwhelm, burnout. It’s powerful to know that someone like you has those feelings. Do you relate to what everyone’s been going through?

I can relate to a lot of people and what they’ve been going through, because I’m a human being; just a normal person myself. The only difference is I do boxing, and it’s on a world stage. But I’m like everyone else, we have downfalls.

When you talk about being on the world stage, and then you lose, or you didn’t get the result that you wanted. How do you pick yourself up?

I don’t call it losing, I call it learning. And even though I’ve lost twice on the world stage, I’ve taken those fights, and I’ve learned from it big time. It took me a while to make changes within myself and my team, but I’ve made the changes and I’ve seen the positive impact on my career. I can look back at those fights now and say, “if I fight those guys, again, it’ll be a different result”.

I guess one of the big conversations, especially as men in New Zealand, is vulnerability. When you talk about the media and the press scrutiny of any athlete, how do you take that and continue to want to do what you do and not just throw in the towel?

Listen, as long as I have a goal – and my goal is to be champion of the world again; two-time world champion – the media can play a big part in your life, good and bad. They can bring you down, they can say this, they can say that, but as long as you have your focus, and as long as you have your support team, as long as you know what drives you to be the best, then all of this stuff is just noise and isn’t important to you. They can say whatever they want about me. I don’t really care because I know exactly who I am as a person. I have my parents support me, I’ve got my siblings, I have my wife and my kids, and that’s all that matters.