It's Friday night, so here's a fun thread: what I've learned from being a professional MMA fighter.

I'm about the furthest thing you could imagine from a career politician, but fortunately I've picked up a few transferrable skills along the way.

1/ Strategy. The bigger an underdog you are, the more having the right strategy matters. Analyse your opponent, find the weakness, decide your gameplan.

2/ Wishful thinking has an unfortunate habit of colliding with reality, with painful consequences.

3/ Once you have your strategy, have the discipline to stick to it under pressure. Don't change it without a damn good reason.

4/ However talented you think you are, nothing beats preparation. You can't start working a week before a fight and expect to do well; you need weeks to months of training. For an election campaign, that may be years.

5/ It's not personal. Don't get emotionally attached to what your opponent is doing, and remember that it's not about you. Mind games go with the territory. See it as a problem to solve, rather than a personal affront.

6/ Go looking for constructive criticism. You want your team to let you know when you're getting something wrong - because the alternative is finding out the hard way. If you make a habit of shooting the messenger, you won't get much feedback.

7/ Know when to stand your ground, know when to circle off. Sometimes you're going to eat a few shots, but do it with a purpose in mind. Getting into a toe to toe brawl is exciting for spectators, but is not always the way to get the outcome you want.

8/ You're going to have to do things that will be difficult, uncomfortable, and occasionally terrifying. Get a good game face.

9/ Most things you're bad at get better with practice.

10/ The media will always use the daftest thing you said in the interview as the headline for the write up.