When you are on top of the world you are able to dream on a level that most people cannot fathom. The world is truly your oyster and roadblocks are seen as mere bumps along the way. Nobody can tell you what you cannot do because you won't imagine it. When you are on a roll like this, life is like a wide open road with no traffic, stop signs or weather to slow you down.

Ronda Rousey said in an interview a few weeks ago that she could see herself holding a title in several different combat sports. In the near future, she could imagine herself being at the top in UFC, woman's boxing and professional wrestling all at once. She sees herself continuing to act in big movies and growing her overall brand. It is difficult for most of us to dream on that level, but it's exciting when someone talks like that and we tend to believe it because they have been unstoppable up until this point.

Then you hit a roadblock.

She just got her ass kicked by someone who wasn't supposed to be good enough to step foot in the same ring as her.   The "open road" perspective on life and dreams may not have the same tone moving forward because she just had someone close the first door on her professional fighting career. Someone just told her "you cannot" and removed the physical evidence of success from around her waist.

She no longer holds the belt. She lost. What was certainly the building block of her potential three sport dominance, is now vacant from her mantle. She has a scar. A blemish beyond a scarred lip. Something that cannot be taken away or given back. She lost. Rousey just tasted, for the first time in her professional life, what it feels like to be truly human. She is no longer immortal and she will not be feared the same way by her opponents moving forward. There is now doubt in her head and in her heart.

We all know this because we have all failed at something. We have all taken a kick to the head from life. We have all had our confidence sucked out of us by someone or something and it feels terrible. It's one of the worst feelings ever. Replacing confidence with the feeling of doubt hurts and permanently scars you in the process. Sure, we learn from losing and falling, but even with those teachings, we will always be reminded of how we learned that lesson and may flinch every time we are forced to dip into that mental bucket for reference.

Depending on how you react, that seed of doubt can grow one of two ways. It can fuel you or it can defeat you.

So what next?

You get up. You shake off the cobwebs, knock down the cartoon birds and stars circling your head and realize that others have faced these same challenges before. Like many great, formerly undefeated, fighters before, you get up and beat up the next person they put in front of you. Like any other challenge life gives you, you get up and #Tryharder to conquer the next hurdle and then the next until winning or succeeding becomes habitual again.

It all starts with the first deep breath. The first step. The first punch. Rematches happen for a reason beyond making money, they are a venue for redemption. When life gives you another shot, make sure to take advantage of it.

#Tryharder