The Five Refusals: Lessons in resilience from a boxing gym

by John Mckinstry

World weary sports journalist Nicky “Old Nick” Chambers is anything but a fan of positive mental attitude. When you fail, in Nick’s eyes at least, you are a failure and nothing can ever change that. So he is appalled when the loser of a big boxing match, a boxer that he himself had effectively written off, announces that he is making a comeback. Sent along to cover the boxer’s attempt to rebuild his career, Nick decides to toss a few little obstacles in the man’s path and so prove his point that when people fail, they become a failure and need to just accept that fact. But the boxer in question has other ideas. Nick thought he was going to be teaching the boxer a lesson but instead he is about to receive one. He is about to learn all about the five refusals and discover for himself what the word “resilience” really means.

104 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 2, 2020