30. Mindset, Motivation and Discipline | Dennis Siver on Project Mindset

Hi everyone and welcome to Project Mindset. I have a quick note about today’s episode: I had the pleasure of conducting another super interesting interview, this time with mixed martial arts fighter Dennis Siever. We talked about mindset, motivation, and discipline in the toughest sport in the world. Dennis is a former UFC fighter. UFC stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship, which is essentially the Champions League of the combat sports world, and he was also the first German to sign a contract with the UFC.

During my conversation with Dennis, it quickly became clear to me how professionally and disciplined he approaches his topics and his sport. You can listen to the interview here in the podcast or on my YouTube channel, where we filmed a short video. Just search for “Project Mindset” on YouTube or visit my website.www.projectmindset.deClick on the YouTube button and yes, in the video you will also see a little pad training session by Dennis and me, and it was super fun.

More insights into the podcast conversations

I have one small request: if you check out my YouTube channel, it would be great if you could give it a like and, most importantly, subscribe. I’m currently trying to expand the channel and post more videos on mindset topics, including this interview, and I would be incredibly grateful for any support you can offer. Anyway, enough rambling, enjoy the episode! My driving force in life is that nothing comes from nothing. In other words, you don’t have to earn everything in life; you only get a few things handed to you on a silver platter, and the best things have to be earned, whether in sports, in life in general, in your career, or anywhere else.

If you do nothing, you don’t reap anything, and that’s always been my driving force in life. Hi everyone, and welcome to Project Mindset, the channel for all those who know that with the right mindset, anything is possible in life. Today we have a very special guest with us: Dennis Siever, the first German UFC fighter ever to sign a contract with the UFC. He’s incredibly well-known, famously infamous for his spinning backkick, and today I want to talk to him about how he’s dealt with all the successes, defeats, and motivation in the toughest sport in the world.

Encounter in the Octagon

Dennis, thank you so much for your time today. You’re very welcome. And where better to talk to a guy like you than in an octagon? That’s why we’re right here in front of the octagon today. Later we’ll go inside, do some pad work, and I think I’ll start with the first questions. Exactly, let’s do that. First question, Dennis, and that is: you’re a pretty laid-back guy. I know you a little bit outside the ring and the octagon. You’re very easygoing, and you’re easy to talk to.

How do you manage to be such a relaxed, easygoing person on the one hand, and then immediately switch into beast mode in the ring or octagon, giving it your all from zero to one hundred? Good question. I think it’s a work ethic, because as soon as the bell rings, it means you have to go full throttle. And that’s what you always do in the octagon or the ring. So it’s just like work for me. And then I try to give my best and just win the fight.

Switching between competition and everyday life

Of course, that includes aggression, motivation, and action. And in normal life, unless you absolutely need that, you try to conserve it all and approach life normally. Like I said, calm and collected. And what emotions do you have right before a fight? I mean, when you know it’s about half an hour away, and you have to jump right into the fight, so to speak. What do you feel then? How do you deal with your emotions? Well, you’re tense, you’re definitely excited, because you’ve worked hard for it, you’ve prepared, you have a responsibility, you don’t want to lose, you want to show your best side.

That’s why it’s a moment where you’re really focused and trying to give your best performance. You kind of get tunnel vision, you could say. And yeah, it’s hard to describe if you haven’t done it yourself. But maybe people who’ve taken an exam or something can imagine it. It’s kind of like this: you’re doing something you’ve prepared for a long time, and then you give it your all. Does fear also play a role?

Fear and concentration before the fight

So, are you perhaps even afraid of getting knocked out, of getting hurt in some way, or do you completely block that out? No, you shouldn’t have thoughts like that, otherwise you can’t focus on the fight. I try to see it as if I’m going into a game and just playfully trying it out, finding out who is faster, simpler, or stronger, who can do certain things better.

Excitement as part of the competition

And that’s when it works best. Of course, excitement is important, otherwise you’re not focused enough, but you can’t be afraid, because if you’re afraid of getting hurt or risking injury in a sport like this, there’s no point in doing it at all. Do you also train your emotions and your thoughts in any way? Is mindset training relevant for you before a fight, or is it purely physical training that you focus on?

I think it all belongs together, because every tough workout also requires a certain level of concentration. Body and mind always have to be in sync. I don’t do any extra mental training or anything like that; I don’t need it. There are people who need it, and some have even tried it, but I’ve always been able to manage it myself. I can always stay focused and clear-headed, and so far it’s always worked out well. And you mentioned motivation earlier. How important is motivation to you?

Okay, let me give you a little background. I’m not entirely convinced that you need motivation to do the things you want to do really well. I want to be able to perform well even on days when I’m not feeling motivated. What about you? Because I imagine your training sessions are extremely tough, extremely long. I had the chance to train with you once. I know it’s not easy to keep up with you. But do you actually need motivation to do such hard training sessions?

Motivation during preparation

I think you need motivation for everything in life, definitely in general, because if I’m preparing for a fight, that takes several weeks. Of course, there are days when you’re not motivated, but you still have to stick to your training. That’s where a certain level of professionalism comes in. But overall, you absolutely need motivation to prepare for something big. Otherwise, there’s no point in even starting, because, well, without certain goals in mind, which is what motivation is all about, you’ll never achieve anything in life.

That’s just my attitude. But what would you consider important? Motivation or discipline? Both. One doesn’t work without the other, because we’re all motivated to achieve and do things in life, but often lack the discipline to follow through, like daily training, tough workouts, or regular training. Sometimes, though, there’s just a day or a few hours where you simply don’t want to do anything or want to do something else.

But you have to force yourself to go to training and push through tough workouts. Discipline is part of that. Diet plan and all that. It’s not something you achieve through motivation alone; you have to be motivated to stick to it. That’s why I think these two components are always intertwined and go hand in hand. You were the first German to be under contract with the UFC, the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The first UFC contract as a dream come true

How did it feel for you to be, so to speak, the first person from this country to compete? It was a good feeling, of course. A good feeling. It was my dream come true. I’d worked towards it for a long time, and it was something special. It’s like, I don’t know, like fulfilling a wish you’ve made for yourself at some point in your life. And yes, being the first was definitely something special back then. So, as I said, it was like my wishes coming true. And how long did you work towards it?

Yeah, well, I’ve always done martial arts, ever since I was 13 or 14. UFC and MMA were still relatively new back then. I mean, in MMA, I had to fight my way up for about four years, in various small events and organizations worldwide, before I finally made it to UFC. But otherwise, like I said, martial arts and becoming a professional athlete has always been my dream. Yeah, the commentator Joe Rogan once said about you, “Your spinning back kick is just amazing.”

Proud of one’s own technology

He raved about you. I saw videos about it on YouTube. It’s great, of course, that you’ve also managed to, well, let’s say, leave a name for yourself with your achievements. Is that something you’re proud of? I’d say that you tell others, hey, I’ve already accomplished something that maybe others haven’t. So how do you deal with that situation? Yes, it’s definitely something nice, because, as you said, when you’re mentioned by name somewhere, or even just a little bit in the history books, you could say, you’re kind of written down.

A special moment in the UFC

There are a lot of highlight videos and things like that where I’m featured. Back then, I was one of the first to knock someone out twice, and those were always the knockouts of the night. So it’s something special. Also, like I said, I spent a lot of time practicing, learning, and perfecting the technique, and then it all comes together. That’s something special and a real reward for you as an athlete, for something you’ve been doing for a long time and working towards.

And you just mentioned techniques. MMA, or Mixed Martial Arts, thrives on the fact that so many different sports come together. I think the core sports could be described as wrestling, kickboxing, boxing, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, I’d say. How do you manage all these different sports? Do you focus on one sport or do you do roughly the same amount of everything? The reason I’m asking is that I’m always faced with the same question: do I focus on my strengths or on my weaknesses?

Training in all areas of martial arts

How did you deal with the situation? First and foremost, you have to try to do everything so you get a bit of an overview of everything. You have to be involved everywhere, because the fight shifts from standing to the ground and everywhere else. Just like in life, situations arise, and you have to be able to do something in every situation to survive. And if you only train your strengths, your weaknesses won’t improve. Eventually, people, your opponents, will exploit that because they’re studying you, they’re looking at what you can and can’t do.

And if you only have obvious weaknesses, they’ll be exploited immediately. That’s why I tried to do everything I could and focus on my weaknesses, because there was a deficit there. That had to be compensated for. And of course, the strengths just kind of came naturally, because they were things you were already good at or had learned from before. I started with kickboxing. I brought some things with me simply because I’d already done them, and I tried to balance the rest and develop it to the point where there’s a system where you have seamless transitions, so that you can no longer be said to be a one-dimensional fighter, but rather that you have a complete package and can compete anywhere.

Learning from one’s own career

That was just the goal. Now comes a slightly unfair question, but looking back, what should you have trained more of, and when did you realize that you should have done more of something? Well, if I were to start all over again, I’d probably start with ground fighting and wrestling a bit earlier. I only learned that later. Of course, you don’t learn things as well later in life as you do now as a child, like kickboxing or something.

But otherwise, I wouldn’t change much. Maybe I’d improve a few things, little details, or pay more attention to them, but overall, I’d leave it as it is. Dennis, you have incredibly tough training sessions. You train twice a day, several days a week. How do you manage that, coming back to the topic of motivation? Are there days when you just don’t feel like training, but you know you have to?

And when a day like that comes along, how can you still persuade or convince yourself that you have to go all in on training again? Yes, of course I have days like that too. I think everyone does at some point in their life. But as I said, a certain professionalism compels me to do it, because of the higher goals. You always have to keep your goal in mind and always consider, weigh things up. What’s important to you? What do you want to achieve? And of course, nothing in life comes without effort.

Stick with it even on difficult days.

And as I said, especially at this level, if you have an important fight coming up, you have to train, whether you want to or not. It’s fine if you do a little less one day, ease up a bit, but you still have to force yourself to go to training and give your best that day, because if you stop doing it, you won’t stay at that level for long. And that’s the problem. And since my goal is always to progress, to keep getting better, can I afford to do that?

Just being dependent on your mood and seeing the whole thing as fun. That’s hard work, and it takes a lot. Have you viewed your sport more like, let’s say, a marathon, where you have to consistently deliver your performance over a very long period, or more like a sprint, where you have to deliver at a peak for a certain time and then can take a break? Well, I don’t think you can do that in our sport. We see it that way as a marathon, because our performance curves go up and then down again, because we need a certain break between our preparations and the race, where we train a little less, not completely stop, but maybe take a few days off, but not drop to 20 percent.

Daily training routine and intensive preparation

So, I always try to maintain 60 to 70 percent of my training volume consistently, and then, for the six, seven, or eight weeks leading up to a competition, comes the preparation phase. Then, of course, the intensity increases, the workload rises, you have to cut weight, so you simply train more and try to get your body back up to 100 percent. But, as I said, unfortunately, you can’t do that for a whole year because at some point your body becomes overloaded, then injuries occur, and illnesses arise.

Therefore, as I said, you can maybe maintain your best form for two or three weeks, if that, and then you have to slow down, otherwise something will happen. It’s like that. So I think the body is incredibly important, but how do you manage to keep your mind and body in sync? Well, you obviously have to take care of your body. They say a healthy mind resides in a healthy body. That means you always have to make sure you’re feeling well, that you’re eating right, that you’re taking enough breaks, that you’re resting, regenerating, and sleeping properly.

Physical requirements and mental condition

These are all important factors. And when everything works, you feel completely different. You’re more mentally motivated and in a better mood. Consequently, you perform better in training and in life. And as I said, it’s all interconnected. Or it’s a chain of circumstances you have to pay attention to to make it work. You can’t just work with your mind or your body in isolation. These are factors that, as I said, can’t exist without each other.

And what about mental recovery? Do you do anything specific, like walks, outings, or just a lot of free time? What do you do to let your mind rest from the demands of sports? Yeah, just switching off. Just going for a walk. Or maybe watching a movie or something. Just taking an hour for yourself, once a day when you’re not stressed, just doing something you enjoy.

Finding balance and relaxation

I don’t know, maybe I’ll read something. Just something calm, something to unwind with. That’s usually enough for me to get back in shape and feel motivated for my training again. I have another question, maybe a bit more MMA-related. It’s about weight cutting, which is typical practice. I heard you cut up to 8 kg before a fight. Is that correct? Yes, that’s correct. Exactly, within 24 hours. Of course, a lot of that is due to water loss, but it seems like a huge mental strain for me.

Let me put it this way, just before the fight, which is crucial, you need to prepare yourself physically and mentally, figuring out who you can eat and drink. Is it a mental strain? Such a drastic weight loss within just a few hours? Yes, absolutely, without a doubt. It’s a feat of strength comparable to, or even more energy-intensive and demanding than, the fight itself, because the fight itself lasts 15 minutes. If it’s a title fight, 25 or 30 minutes in total.

The load before weighing

And a process like cutting weight takes days, weeks. You start in the preparation phase with a light diet and lose a few grams, maybe a few more kilograms, and then the rest, as you said, for me it was always around 8 kilos in the last 24 hours before the scale. And that’s quite an effort. And if you’re not mentally focused and clear-headed, then it won’t work, because your body is exhausted.

You’re thirsty, you’re hungry, but you might still have to keep going because you’re still a kilo or two short, and then you just can’t go on. You have to push through that. Completely switching off becomes necessary. You really have to think like a robot, or be programmed to stop thinking and just do what you’re doing, keep your goal in mind, and work towards it. Otherwise, it won’t work because you’ll easily burn out. Especially if, like I said, you’ve lost 8 kilos of water, then all you can think about is drinking.

The battle before the battle

And then you really have to be able to control yourself. I didn’t even know you could actually compare it, that it’s also a fight before the fight, so to speak. That’s worse than a fight. Wow. Yeah, totally intense. Dennis, I’ll get to my last question before this one in a moment, but maybe for our listeners. If someone wants to follow you online, where’s the best place for them to do that if they want to find out more about you, see what you’re up to? Yeah, the usual stuff, Facebook, Instagram, just search for my name.

Dennis Sivers’ defining mindset

There are channels there, I don’t know, pictures, training tutorials, a few videos for people who are interested or who follow the whole thing. The usual stuff, yeah. Great. Definitely worth following. Now let’s get to my last question, which I always ask every guest at the end because it’s personally very interesting to me. What motto has had the biggest and most positive influence on you in your life? Well, my driving force in life would be: nothing comes from nothing.

So, basically, that means you have to earn everything in life. You only get a few things handed to you, and the best things have to be earned. Be it in sports, or in life in general, your career, or anything else. If you don’t do anything, you don’t reap anything. And that’s always been my driving force. Wow. Guys, I hope you enjoyed the interview as much as I did. I really learned a lot. Above all, I learned that nothing comes from nothing.

And the fact that you need hard work to have everything and everywhere that’s worth your time. I think you can definitely learn a thing or two about discipline from Deniz Seber. Two training tutorials a day, several days a week. I’m totally impressed. Deniz, thank you so much. I hope I was able to help. That was really fun. I was able to turn it on. Yes, definitely. And guys, subscribe to the channel. Leave me a like if you enjoyed the episode, and don’t forget, mindset is everything.