Lessons to Learn from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to Lead a Kick-Ass Life

Who doesn’t know Mr. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson! 

The man who pulled off the weakest looking signatures moves in the history of WWE. Yet, the crowd always exploded with excitement every time he planned on dropping the People’s Elbow. 

From a successful football career to turning into a world-class wrestling superstar, from talk shows to a blockbuster celebrity, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is a man who has achieved the maximum in life; all that a normal man could only desire to achieve; the perfect male figure catching all the female attention. 

He’s a high paid actor, he drives fast cars, he travels through private jets and of course, he’s an active bodybuilder. But life hasn’t always been this awesome for Mr. Rock, there was a time when he walked around the neighborhood with only $7 in his pocket, but he always knew he would never go broke again.  

People like Mr. Dwayne inspires us every day. They bring speed to our lives. But, we often ponder how did he manage to become what he is now? How did he achieve such pioneering successes in life? What is the secret behind his success? The secret lies in his attitude and looks towards life. Here are a few lessons to help you learn from a celebrity superstar like Mr. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.  

Lesson # 1: Know Your Role & Stay Well-Focused in Achieving those Goals

Being respectful and nice is one trait that everyone cherishes. It’s what our parents have taught us right from the beginning. In fact, we are mentally trained to respect our elders and ourselves in the process. But, when it comes to striving for success, you need to put all the respect aside and focus. 

As a big achiever in life, you need to tone down your attitude and approach to things in a fierce way. You need to show yourself that you are determined. If you really want to smell the sweetness of success, then you have to become someone who is ready to kill for it. Only then success comes your way. Hence, you will have to put aside all the small stuff that can bother you or create hindrances. 

Mr. Rock is a bold man and throughout his wrestling career, he educated the world that one should never settle for anything that hurts their self-respect. You have to become that person who has enough confidence to tell others to shut their mouths when they are foul mouthing behind your back. 

If you know your role in life, if you know your goals, then don’t let anyone tell you how to achieve them. 

Lesson # 2: Blood, Sweat & Respect, First Two you Give, Last One you Earn

If you want to earn greatness in life, then you have to be consistent. Without consistency, you can easily find yourself in the trenches of disasters within no time. For instance, if you commit to complete a task, then give your 110% every day in achieving it. If you aren’t doing good enough, you’re losing. 

Even though, if what you aimed for remained unachieved, you will at least come out of it as a different person. You will become a more trained, more polished and more experienced person than before. 

Just like Mr. Dwayne Johnson would get into the ring and compete for the world heavyweight title. Many times, he would lose a match, a match that was already in his hands! The crowd would be cheering for him like crazy; but tragically, things wouldn’t turn out to be in his favor and he would lose. 

But, one thing that we can’t ever forget about Mr. Rock is that seldom had we seen him disappointed. In fact, later on, many wrestlers tried to prove themselves to him, but only a few earned his respect. 

A person is known not for the times he has fallen, but for the times he stood back up and persistently worked his way to reach the top. Remember the story of King Robert Bruce and the Spider? 

Nothing in life is given, whatever comes your way, you have to work hard to achieve it, to win it. And once you are able to achieve it, then you reach a higher level of greatness where no one can deny you. 

Lesson # 3: Be Determined to Take Control Over the Situation

Here’s what happened when Dwayne Johnson was only 14 years old. He came back with his mother and found an eviction notice attached to the door of his house with a padlock on it. Plus, he saw that his mother’s car got repossessed. At the time, the family was living in a tiny one-bedroom flat in Honolulu. 

His mother broke down into tears and watching her cry like that, Dwayne made a vow to himself, 

“I was determined to take control of the situation,” he said. “I would never be homeless again, and I’d never, ever see my mom cry like that again.”

Dwayne knew, at the time he was only 14 and couldn’t get a job that would pay the rent. But, he knew he had to do something, so young Dwayne started helping his mother to turn the situation around. 

Soon he realized, 

“It occurred to me that all of the men I knew who had achieved success were all men of great physical stature, and I knew that they all got that way through sweat equity—putting callouses on their hands. So in my mind, the key was simple: I’d continue going to the gym and work harder than before, and then I’d follow their path to greatness.”

Since then, he started working out two days a week initially. And soon he realized that he was destined to become a body-builder, a pro-athlete and a wrestler just like his Father. He knew if he doesn’t want to see his mother shed a single tear ever again, he will have to workout double time and get ripped.

Here is a picture of Mr. Dwayne Johnson putting that smile back on her mother’s face. 

He trained harder and harder and eventually turned into a world-class powerful athlete. 

“In looking back I realize how seminal a moment that was in my life,” – The Rock

Lesson # 4: Without Control, Strength Can turn Into a Weakness

Right from the start, Mr. Dwayne worked hard on his muscles and at the age of 14-15, he was already capable of lifting up weight around 225lbs. Due to his towering height of 6’4 and a muscular body, he started living in a different state of self-confidence which eventually turned into a state of arrogance. 

That arrogance drove Mr. Dwayne into doing things he was least expected of getting himself into, 

 “I was running around and getting in trouble a lot, I was arrested multiple times for a multitude of things, from fighting to a theft ring to check fraud to more fighting. I did a lot of stupid shit and struggled to stay on the right path.” 

At the age of 15, Mr. Dwayne realized that getting arrested and going to jail isn’t the path to follow, 

He told himself, 

And in that moment I thought, ‘I don’t ever want to disappoint my parents again.’ So I said to myself that I was going to stop getting arrested.

Yet, Mr. Dwayne Johnson found himself again getting expelled from the school over a petty quarrel. 

But that didn’t put him down because you see, Mr. Dwayne realized something that day. 

They say with great power comes great responsibility. And when you are destined to do something big, things ultimately become difficult. Your goals become distant and you might observe hurdles coming your way, but that’s nature’s way of sending a few challenges back at you. After all, what’s the fun of getting something when you don’t have to take a few risks and face some great obstacles. 

Lesson # 5: The Signs Are Always There, Just Look For Them in the Right Places

When Mr. Dwayne Johnson shifted himself to a new school, he realized that the school’s common washroom isn’t the place where he should visit too often. The boys kept pushing him around there and he didn’t want to end up getting expelled from school once again for getting into a fight. Therefore, he chose to visit the teacher’s washroom instead and a male teacher about his size told him to walk out. 

He gently brushed passed him and went back to his class.

Later that night, Mr. Dwayne felt pangs of guilt, he wanted to take this chance to turn things around. 

“So the very next day I went back to school to look for him,” said Johnson. 

I found out where he was teaching and went to his classroom, walked right up to him, and said, ‘Hey, I just want to apologize for the way I acted yesterday. I’m sorry.’ I stuck my hand out to shake his, and he looked at my hand, and then he looked at me, and he took my hand and said, ‘I appreciate that.’ And he held on to my hand and said, ‘I want you to play football for me.’ So I said, ‘OK.’ And that was it.

At the time, he didn’t know that Jody Cwik is going to turn out to be someone more than just a football coach. He never realized that this man will change his perspective and give him a positive outlook. 

Dwayne said, 

 “There are signs around us all the time,” he said, “and a lot of the time we don’t see them, but sometimes we do, and those become the greatest lessons.”

Later on, Jody became more than just a football coach in the life of Dwayne Johnson. He chiseled the man’s talent and made him firm in his belief to take control of who he is and what he is destined to be. 

Lesson # 6: Having Doubts on Your Skills, Skip Back to Basic and Start Over Again

Jody worked hard to make Dwayne a successful football player. And Dwayne in return proved Jody that he was the right candidate as an athlete and a student. He followed Jody’s lead meticulously and was ranked as one of the top 10 defensive tackles in the United States of America. He received a sweet scholarship at the University of Miami. Little did he know that he will find himself ending up with a broken shoulder. At the age of 18, Dwayne wanted to step down because he wasn’t ready for it.  

“I was ballin,” he said. “I was going to be the only freshman to play. Then, on the very last day of practice with pads I completely dislocated my shoulder. It was an awful dislocation. That night I was having a complete reconstruction of my shoulder. I went from being on top of the world to in the dumps at 18.”

Dwayne went into a complete depression. He went into a recluse until he received a call from Dennis. 

Dennis Erickson was Miami’s head coach. 

“He says to me, ‘I’d like you to come back to school early,'” said Johnson. “I ask, ‘How early?’ and he says, ‘In a couple of days.'”

Johnson added, So I come back to school, and he was so pissed. He and my defensive line coach charged hard on me. They grilled me. ‘How can you do this? You embarrassed us! You embarrassed the team! You were in a leadership position, and now you have a 0.7 GPA because you fucked off and left!’ 

And he was told, 

They said, ‘Here’s what’s gonna happen. From now on, you are under academic probation,” said Johnson. “You are on the verge of having your scholarship pulled. You will attend every class. Then, when you’re done with class, you will go straight to the gym and attend every team meeting, and you will sit on the sidelines at every practice. But here’s the key: In order to get into the football building, you will have to get signatures from every one of your professors every day saying that you attended class.'”

After then Dwayne worked really hard to regain his strength and rise up back to his position. 

“I did everything they told me to do and turned it around,” he said. “Eventually I became the academic captain, and by my junior year, I was preseason All-America on a couple of lists. I did what had to be done.”