For typical professional athletes, when they dedicate their entire life to their craft, the words seem cliched and hollow. But when the same affirmation is uttered by a professional fighter, the sentiment almost seems understated.
Adam Kayoom in action.
While other athletes spend hours throwing balls, swimming, riding horses and swinging racquets, fighters subject themselves to a daily torrent of pain and bodily harm that would be considered a horrific assault in any other circumstance.
A daily regime of punches, kicks, knees and elbows to the head and body, tendon-tearing joint locks and brutal choke holds, and, if time permits, a few spare hours for family commitments and sleep.
It is no surprise that the phrase you have to love it is dominant in combat sports vernacular.
When Bangkok-based mixed martial artists Adam Kayoom walked into a motor-license issuer in Sydney several years ago to have his photo taken, he had two black eyes and a busted lip.
"Can you imagine getting pulled over by the cops and handing them your ID with that picture on it?" he said.
"They just look at you like 'What the hell?"'
Walking through life in a consistent state of aches and pains comes with the territory, and the balance between adequate preparation and over training is a delicate one.
Kayoom, a 36-year-old welterweight who now fights under Singapore-based ONE Fighting Championship, learned that the hard way after he was forced to pull out of a Nov 15 world title bout with knockout artist Nobutatsu Suzuki after breaking one of his ribs _ he also injured his knee and groin before that.
Kayoom attributes the injury to over-training. As is often the case with most athletes, it came down to the phrase take it easy for a while, and how doctors and fighters interpret the words differently.
"When the doctor told me to tone it back I figured I could still crack hard on the weights," said Kayoom, who was born in Malaysia and grew up in Australia.
"I felt my rib pop after doing a dead lift, and it hurt like hell. I went to the doctor and he said: 'Didn't I see you here last week?"'
Fighters are required to submit a medical examination before ONE FC will clear them to fight. Kayoom had been avoiding submitting his for weeks.
When he got the report back he saw exactly what he feared: 'Unfit to fight' written across the page.
Adam Kayoom.
Months of training down the drain, and his run to become Bangkok's first MMA world champion would have to wait.
His route to become a professional mixed martial artist was a long one, and he admits he only got into it for the money at first.
When Kayoom was first approached in 2010 by the promoter of Legend Fighting Championship, a lower-tier promotion based in Hong Kong, he was in the middle of a successful career in Muay Thai winning the WPMF middleweight belt twice.
"He told me what I made from a championship Muay Thai fight I could make for just showing up to an MMA fight," Kayoom said.
It was a slightly ironic twist of fate. Kayoom had originally travelled to Thailand to improve his striking ability for mixed martial arts, but he fell in love with muay thai and stayed. After an impressive Muay Thai career, Kayoom was ready to hang up the gloves and settle down.
"At that time I thought fighting was done, I had done everything I had wanted to do," he said.
"But after that first MMA fight, I realised that I could still do this. It reinvigorated me."
Although he lost the fight via a razor-thin decision to Korean Myung Ho Bae, Kayoom's MMA career was up and running again, and he hasn't lost since.
Training with the renowned Phuket Top Team, Kayoom has won his last three bouts, and is next in line for a shot at the ONE FC welterweight strap when he recovers.
But it would be a mistake to assume that a career in MMA is all he is after. While Kayoom stands alone as the best mixed martial artists in Thailand, his MMA career is just one chapter in a life dedicated to fighting.
He has spent most of his life on what can only be described as a combat sports pilgrimage before he moved to Thailand he spent years travelling to the south of Brazil to learn jujitsu from prominent masters Walter Mattos and Mario Sperry. He holds black belts in BJJ, taekwondo and karate.
Kayoom's broader ambitions are to grow jujitsu in Thailand through the Asia Pacific Taekwondo Academy in Bangkok.
"Jujitsu in particular, and martial arts in general, has given me so much," said Kayoom, who is the head jujitsu trainer at the academy.
"If I wasn't raised in a religion I would say martial arts are my religion. It sounds cliched, but I want to help give back and spread the sport around the country. I think it could be big here."