Stay On The Path

Setting The Table

We humans are not lazy, but we are conservation experts. We will do as little is required and as much as is necessary.

As physical beings occupying a physical universe and the laws therein, this makes sense. But we are not just these meat wagons. We are the most complicated and beautiful miracle in all of creation. The most nuanced, sophisticated, and diverse species on this planet.

There is divinity in us.

And yet we have such low expectations for ourselves. We stumble. We wander. We are insincere in our pursuits.

Are You In The 33%?

In our Jiu Jitsu academy last night, I asked our senior students how many of them had a personal curriculum, a specific focus for their training during randori? Maybe a third of the students rose their hands.

1 out of every 3 had a plan!

The scary thing about this is not that 2/3rds of our most advanced group were just winging it, hoping for improvement. This reveals something far more subtle, and dare I say, sinister.

The Campaign For Improvement

The people that practice Jiu Jitsu are exceptional. We voluntarily engage with the difficult in pursuit of the next version of ourselves. We are rare and uncommon people. We are outliers, representative of the best of civilian life.

Our advanced group is filled with first responders, great fathers, and successful professionals.

…and 2/3rds of them show up with a lack of intention that daily picks the pocket of their potential.

My former strength and conditioning coach used to say, “Every day you miss you don’t get back.” Well, just as concerning, it's possible to miss the days that you are present.

Showing up will not get the job done. We are in the act of divine creation. We are in the process of forging ourselves. This is a campaign. This is the odyssey for which you were born.

We have an opportunity to become what it is our destiny to attain.

A proposal: none of us (including myself) has high enough standards for ourselves.

Have a mission.
Have a specific aim.
Be organized in your efforts.
Get granular in your focus.
Define the wins in the context of your personal evolution.
Make the most of your time.
Use each day well.
Go to bed utterly exhausted.

The Good And Bad News

Because here’s the real truth that no one talks about:

It’s just as hard to grow as it is to “maintain”. It’s all hard. Progress requires no more effort than maintenance. We might as well grow.

Show up and go through the motions for years. In an organized academy, you will eventually get promoted. But you walk a fine line to a destination you may not want to go.

I warn my students not to become a "bad" blackbelt. If you stay around long enough, eventually, you will receive the holy grail. But what will that belt represent?

Option 1: The Great Blackbelt

Have you mastered the craft? Have you mastered yourself? Have you put to bed your bad habits and grabbed hold of higher standards? Have you crafted the vision for your future and through a sheer act of will and defiance become something great?

Have you become a formidable adversary to the dark forces in the world? Are you a sheepdog? Are you a vessel for good in this world, a harbinger of the light?

Have you become hard to kill? Have you become easy to love?

Or….

Option 2: The Bad Blackbelt

Are you that nice guy that showed up for a decade? Did you hang around long enough for your professor to eventually echo those five soul-crushing words? He-put-in-the-time.

He put in the time. But he got so little out of it.

Call To Adventure

We can all become masters, representatives of the best aspects of Jiu Jitsu. We can master ourselves as we seek to master this infinite thing. We can come to know ourselves by seeking to know the art.

Here's the deal:

No help is coming. No one cares if you master this art. No one cares if you have high standards for yourself. No one cares if you fall short of your ideal. No one cares if you never posit an ideal in the first place.

And no one can see it. But you can. And if you can’t see it, you can feel it. Gnawing in the back of your brain. Eating at you. I’m not enough. I’m not done. I've got more in the basement.

This is not some call to self-denigration. It’s the necessary constraints of liberation.

What will your future hold?

Will you cultivate a skill that you are proud of, that others long for. Will you wrap that black belt around your waist with a knowing that you walked the path, and walked it well?

The greatest prize is self-respect. This is hard-won. It comes at the sacrifice of comfort, in the absence of maintenance, and is only awarded by oneself.

1% Better

Can you get 3700x better this year? “Who, me? No Way. Maybe 10%, that’d be a good year.”

1% better. Every Jiu Jitsu student on earth can get 1% better every day.

Slow down the pace of your training. 1%.
Acquire a new framework. 1%.
Make a worthwhile distinction. 1%.
Learn the complimentary opposite to a great tool. 1%.
Force feed yourself humility by playing guard on your bad hip 1%.

1% everyday for a year is 3700x better. Yea, I know, compounding is wild.

Can you get 1% better today? Yes.

Then I’ll see you in a year.

Why This Matters

If you’re reading this and you train at my academy, you will see me in a year. And here’s why:

Because the standard of constant improvement is the safeguard against the struggles of life. We are attacked on all sides. Entropy is real. Catastrophe exists. There will be in no shortage of challenges in our lives. And to the best of my understanding, the bulwark against collapse within the individual is the steadfast commitment to improvement. It’s the antidote to degradation.

Constant improvement is our freedom.

I will serve my students. I will support your quest to fulfill your potential. I will play my part in reminding you of the accessibility and necessity of this quest. That’s all I can do. The rest is up to you.

And I believe in you. And I believe this sincerity may be one of the most important decisions the practitioner ever makes.

Because I know that this level of commitment to mastery is a proxy for the level of commitment we bring to the rest of our lives.

If you sleepwalk through Jiu Jitsu, there is a high likelihood this mirrors your relationships, your profession, and your health.

We have no idea what we could become if we committed to getting better each day.

What if we used today to fulfill the prescription on our heart? Can you use today in a way where that future version of you – what you will be when you have manifested every ounce of what you could be – looks at you with a smile, with acceptance, with acknowledgement?

Take Your Hill

Hold yourself to a higher standard. Be unreasonable in your standards. No one else will do it for you.

And if there is an afterlife, may we avoid the pain of meeting who our creator intended us to be and realizing the massive chasm between reality and potential.

We get one shot at this. I believe in us. I believe in humanity. We are capable beyond measure.

We just have to decide, to cut away all other possibilities.

I will no longer show up and go through the motions.
I will have a plan.
I will have a purpose.
I will concentrate my genius.
I will become what I am capable of.

This is the path. This is how you become a martial artist you’ll be proud of. This is how you become a GREAT blackbelt.

Which camp will you be in? With the bad blackbelts who hung around or the great blackbelts who leaned in?

I have a hypothesis. When you get there, there is a strong chance that the category you fall into will be a proxy for all the other roles you play in life.

If your on the path, you will become a blackbelt. The only question is which one: bad or great?

The world needs more great blackbelts. Please, do not deprive us of your gifts.

Take your hill.