A lesson from sports champions: The power of intention changes reality. Your health. Your career. Your world.

Seven weeks before Muhammad Ali met World Heavyweight Champion George Foreman for their “rumble in the jungle” at Kinshasa in 1975, Ali practised his punches as if he couldn’t care less, taking a few desultory swipes at his sparring partner as if distractedly popping a bag. Mostly he’d lie against the ropes and allow his opponent to pound away at him from every angle.

In the latter years of his boxing career, Ali spent much of his training time learning how to take punches. He studied how to shift his head by just a hair a microsecond before the connection was made, or where in his body he could mentally deflect the punch so that it would no longer hurt. He was not training his body to win. He was training his mind not to lose, at the point when deep fatigue sets in around the 12th round and most boxers cave in. Ali’s most important work was being done, not in the ring, but in his armchair. He was fighting the fight in his head.