Lawrence Okolie - Dare to Change Your Life

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First published by Ebury Press in 2021

Copyright Lawrence Okolie

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Cover design: Kieron Lewis

ISBN: 978-1-473-59077-9

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Lawrence and I, were both from London, and thats how we connect. We also connect on another level: were both fearless.

As a boxer, you wonder how great you could become, but we both take the approach of saying, Lets just get on with it, and feeling no fear. No matter where we end up, its going to be better than where we started, in boxing and also in life. If youre disciplined and you put in a bit of hard work, anything is possible in my life, in Lawrences life, and in your life, too.

Lawrence is an inspiration to me and, after reading his story, hell become an inspiration to you, too (if he wasnt already). I respect and appreciate what he has achieved in boxing. Its always amazing to hear Lawrences story, and to read it again in these pages, of how he was working in a McDonalds during the 2012 London Olympics but was inspired to become a boxer after watching me fight for a gold medal.

I remember him as an amateur, coming down to my gym, and doing a few rounds. It seemed like a minute after London 2012, Lawrence was boxing with the Olympic guys, and he went on to become an Olympian himself, representing Great Britain at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. Soon after that, he became a professional.

Im proud to be his friend as well as his manager, mentor and occasional sparring partner.

In Lawrences first book, youll get exclusive insight into how he turned his life around and became one of the most inspirational and exciting stories in sport. Lawrence is an honest guy, and its all in here, with some deeply personal and revealing stories. But, even more importantly, Lawrences 41 lessons will help you to find your own dream and to turn that into a reality, transforming your own life.

As it says on the front of this book, dare to change your life.

Anthony Joshua

Im proud of the changes Ive made to my life. Ive revolutionised my mindset. Ive changed how I look at myself and how I look at the world, and Ive also improved my lifestyle. Now I want to help you to make changes in your own life.

In the age of Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, I know the power of the printed word. Reading a book can completely transform how someone thinks and acts; books can change lives. Thats why Ive written this book of life lessons. Currently, there arent enough black voices in books with inspirational, positive messages, and Im happy to help address that with Dare to Change Your Life. I get huge satisfaction from thinking youll read my story and be inspired. That would make me feel so blessed. That would be the purest thing. That would make me so happy.

While Im a fighter, this isnt a boxing memoir purely aimed at fans of the fight game. Its a book with a universal message about living well; that anyone can dare to change their life. Perhaps youre feeling scared, hopeless, and unsure about where youre heading in life and what to do next. Maybe you feel stuck in a job you hate, or a relationship thats going nowhere, and you cant see a way out. Whatever your situation, if youre looking to make changes in your life, I want to help you in these pages. Reading this book is the first step towards daring to change your life.

In these opening chapters, I look at the first steps you need to take to change your life. Im going to show you that anything is possible, how to find your ambition, and how to believe in yourself when others keep doubting you and your dreams. Among other lessons in this section are why you should always choose being extraordinary over being ordinary, how to keep your focus and avoid being distracted by social media, as well as standing up for yourself, and how a pen and paper are often the best therapy. As you start to make changes, Ill also be urging you not to let impatience kill your dreams.

I was nineteen stone, dangerously bloated, clinically obese, and working in McDonalds. I was going nowhere, slowly.

I didnt know it, but I was also just hours away from the moment that would change my life, that would propel me towards the Olympics only four years later. An Olympic cycle that began, in all places, at a burger joint inside Victoria train station, amid the everyday grind and greyness of inner-city London. And which would end in Rio de Janeiro, somewhere between Copacabana Beach and Christ the Redeemer, and surrounded by the worlds greatest athletes.

On the way to my shift at McDonalds, I couldnt have predicted that I was about to start my crazy transition from obesity to the Olympics. How could I have foreseen that, when my worldview was framed by the golden arches, and when the closest thing I had to a mentor was Ronald McDonald? And when my boss had just heavily scolded me for turning up only a minute late, which really put a dampener on my mood and my day? If I had ambitions that morning, they werent to represent Great Britain at the 2016 Olympic Games, and to go on to become a professional boxer. If I aspired to anything, it was to one day become a manager in McDonalds, but after just a year of working there, even that seemed like a distant dream.

My days were measured out in burgers, fries, milkshakes and Happy Meals: the ones I served and the ones I put aside for myself. When I wasnt working in McDonalds, I was eating in McDonalds, several times a day. In between the Big Macs, I was bingeing on bags of Haribo sweets. Sugar hit after sugar hit. I was eating as much junk as I could, and I was eating it as quickly as I could.

All that fast food was slowing me down. I had never been much of an athlete at school I was never picked for any teams, and I certainly didnt win any races. Aged nineteen, I couldnt even shuffle a quarter of the way around the local park before my body, swollen and clogged with fat, screamed at me to stop. That was hell on Earth. I had always been big as a child, but this was the heaviest I had ever been. Even at six foot five inches, nineteen stone was massively overweight, with my doctor warning me I was obese. I was already sluggish, with knee pain because of my weight, and, with the way I was eating, I was only going to get heavier. How long before I couldnt even make it a quarter of the way around the park?