Daily blog #38

Give to get

Jiu Jitsu, like life is full of ups and downs. Recently I’ve been trying to change some of my habits in the way I fight which can result in me struggling with lower belt levels. In one of my later rounds when I was tired, there was a situation where I start the match losing by 6 points and my partner’s objective is to hold on to the lead, creating urgency on my part. Rather than taking full advantage of the opportunity to improve, I allowed my ego to take control which made me focus on getting as many submissions as possible, taking me away from my objective. This resulted in me forcing and using more strength and power than necessary rather than developing my weak areas. My lesson was that not only was I a bad training partner but I failed to exercise Jiu Jitsu principles of “Maximum efficiency and maximum effectiveness”. Lose, lose…When we acknowledge that what we want, often comes down to us developing ourselves, we are forced to choose between giving in and embracing the change to develop new skill sets or holding on to your old ways and trying to muscle things. We must understand that everything has a price and sometimes that new skill will cost you requires you to reach deep within yourself and sacrifice your ego something that I struggled to do. Once we recognize this we can start to catch ourselves and create better habits. This not only improves our Jiu Jitsu but also raises our level of happiness due to the feeling that comes with beautiful execution of leverage and timing in your techniques which is what Jiu Jitsu and life are all all about.