How Bad Do You Want It?

There's a story I heard by a guy named Eric Thomas, to paraphrase the story he told:


There was a young man that wanted to be success, and one day the man went to see a guru.  The young man said, "Guru, I want to be as successful as you are.  I want to accomplish what you have done." 


The Guru said, "okay, if you want to be successful meet me at the beach tomorrow at 6:00 A.M."


The man said, "The beach?  I want to make money.  Not go for a swim."


The Guru said, "If you want to make money, meet me at the beach."


So the young man gets to the beach the next day at 5:45, wearing a suit, and he sees the Guru out in the water.  The Guru calls for him to go out to meet him.  The young man walks out into the water and walks until the water is waist high.  and he says, "okay I'm here, now what?" The Guru tells him to come further.  So the young man walks until he is chest high and says, "okay I'm here, now what?"  The Guru tells him to come further.  So the young man walks until he is up to his mouth in the water.


The Guru grabs the young man by the neck and holds him under the water.  The young man kicks and scratches and fights but the Guru holds him under.  Not until the young man is on the edge of unconsciousness does the Guru lift him from the water.  He asked the young man, "when you were under the water, what did you want to do?" 

The young man said, "breath."

The Guru told him, "When you want to succeed, as bad as you want to breath, then you will be successful."

Make a list of things that would take priority over breathing in your life.  It's pretty short.

For more on Eric Thomas, check out his site.  www.etthehiphoppreacher.com/

Thanks for reading,

Nick

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Why Do I Fight

When you truly dedicate your life to something, and you put that something above all of the other things that happen in your life, people think your crazy.  You get asked a lot, "Why do you do it so much?" or "Do you really enjoy doing it that often?"  To me, those people are missing out.  They're missing out on having something that they're so passionate about that the question "what do I want to do with my life?" doesn't come into their reasoning.  Maybe I am an extremist, but name any great man or women in history that wasn't?  So when someone asks me why I do it, I tell them some of the few things that I know for sure.  I know that I want my life to have an impact on others.  I know that I don't want to settle for an average career.  I know I want to die knowing that I accomplished something, and I know that I want to live a life that is worth living.

Its always been important to me to reach others with my life.  I think, ultimately, the the thought of eternity scares me.  I want to know that when I die I will have done something that lasts longer than I do.  If I can share my passion with someone maybe I can put some passion in their life. When you have passion in your life you have happiness.  I feel that if I can share passion and happiness with people then I'll be leaving the world a slightly better place.  I hope that maybe I can do well enough that I will reach a platform high enough to truly reach a lot of people.  Most importantly, growing up I've always been in the average group when it came to athletics, I've never been terrible at them, but I have never been exceptionally good at them.  If I reach the goals that I have set by myself, then it will be from nothing but hard work and God's blessing.  I hope that in doing this I can inspire so many more people to really work hard for their goals.  Imagine what kind of world we would live in if every one strove to do something great?

Photo by: Elisa Alves

I have never been someone who could handle any mundane activities.  I feel like so many people underestimate their abilities and settle for a middle of the road job.  Now, let me make this clear, there's nothing wrong with working hard at a blue collar job to take care of your family.  There is, I think, something wrong with working a job that you never wanted to do, because you don't think you have what it takes to do what you really want to do.  I have never been able to accept being average, or to accept the statistics that people recited to me about how many people actually grow up to live their childhood dreams.  I have a need to do something that stands out.  I have a need to do something special.

When I am ready to die.  I want to sit there and think back on my life, and think, "damn, that was cool.  I really did it."  I want to know that I left my mark on the world with the things I did and the people I inspired.  Will fighting really do this for me?  I think so.  In the end, it isn't really about the fighting, its about overcoming extremely tough obstacles and getting past everything in my way to get where I want to be, and showing other people that they can do what they want to do.  All you have to do is try; really try.


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Thanks for reading,  :)

Nick

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competition week: 10th planet in house tournament

So, I didn't get to compete in Gracie Nationals.  I had a bit of an issue with the money, but its okay, there are always more tournaments.  This weekend is the invitational 10th planet tournament that we are hosting at 10th Planet Riverside.  All of the other 10th planet gyms are invited, along with a few of our surrounding local gyms, such as Gracie Barra Corona and Sequence Jiu Jitsu.

I saw my bracket a few days ago, and I have some guys that I have met before in it.  They are good guys, I am looking forward to the challenge this time.  Still though, I feel that as long as I keep up with the long hours of mat time, and go out there and enjoy myself, I will win.

I think for some people tournaments can be an event of extreme pressure.  For me I always remember that as long as I am well prepared, I may not finish first in every tournament that I do, but I will always do well and at least metal.  I always want first place, but if not, I will still respect myself for the tremendous amount of work that I have put in to this.  I go into tournaments and try to have fun, because if I am not having fun, what's the point of even doing it?  I want Jiu Jitsu to be my career because I love it and I want to share it with others, not because I have a need to dominate others in competitions.

I am relaxed and ready for this tournament, I feel confidant that who ever I face is not as dedicated as I am.  If they are, I feel confident that I have a mental edge on them.  My relaxed state of mind, my confidence in myself, and most importantly my confidence in God gives me a one up on my fellow competitors.  I go into tournaments knowing that I will win, and I will win simply because I know this.

This should be a good tournament so I should have pics and videos up soon.



Thanks for reading guys and girls,

Nick

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Winning is a State of Mind. Not a Score on the Scoreboard

First off, let me say that in any of my posts, if i share an opinion or a claim, I am not in any way trying to pretend to be some Jiu Jitsu guru with this huge store of boundless information.  I am student of this game, absolutely nothing more.  This blog is simply a sharing of lessons that I learn, as I learn them.  That being said, I would like to share what I learned today.

I arrived early to class today, so I thought I would watch the kids wrestling class.  I heard the wrestling coach tell the kids something that was interesting.  He said, "Winning is a state of mind. Not a score on the scoreboard."  At first it didn't make sense to me.  I thought, winning a match in its definition is scoring more points than the other guy. 

But the phrase resonated in me, and I began to think bigger.  I don't think he was referring to one single match.  I believe he was referring to true winning; winning the title or the championship; consistent winning.  I think he was right, because sure scoring more points will win you a match, but to truly win, to be a champion, you need the state of mind.  It reminds of me of a quote I once read.  The quote was, "success comes from a state of mind knowing that you did everything that you possibly could to prepare."  This was my mantra for many of my tournaments when I thought I might face people who were more experienced than myself.

What I concluded from this lesson was that in order to succeed, you must have the right state of mind, and in order to get that state of mind, you must do everything in your power to make sure you are the best you can possibly be.  Work hard for your goals and you will reach them.

I hope this post will help some of you.  Thanks for reading.

Nick

Go for it

I had a discussion with a friend of mine from work about how so many kids grow up being told that they need to be more realistic with their dreams and about how the odds of them being a rock star or an astronaut are very slim.  It got me thinking about how so many people give up on their dreams.  Almost every single person that I know is in a job that the settled for or stumbled into.  Growing up we are told, to a certain extent, that the odds of us achieving our dreams were slim, and that hundreds of thousands of people try for that goal but very few make it.  Well I think very few make it, because very few try.

So many people give up on what they want and settle for something that will just get them by.  They may say that they tried, but they didn't put their heart and soul into achieving their goal, for hours, days, and years, ignoring everything in their way.  The just bought into the statistics and gave in.  I want to share my belief that if you want something bad enough, and if you work hard enough, there is nothing that can stop you from what you want.  I want more than anything to be a world champion, and I will get there.

Forget what you were told by society, don't believe in them, believe in your self.  Find something that you want to do and go for it, and never let go.  If you put in the work, and you never give up, than you can't fail.  One of the biggest things that Jiu Jitsu taught me is that the person who trained more, almost always wins.  And I'm not just talking about who trained more for that particular match, I mean in their entire life.  If I put more hours on the mat than the guy across from me, I'll beat him. 

I want to challenge anyone reading this to go for something big.  If you a Jiu Jitsu player, then I challenge you to put in the work and win the next World Championships.  You can do it.  You can win.  Dream big, think big, win big.

Thanks for reading guys,

Nick

Commitment

I discovered Jiu Jitsu a little later than some.  I had a brown belt in Karate and found my self in a MMA fight in Kentucky with absolutely no idea what MMA really was.  The extent of my ground game was ground n' pounding a punching bag in my garage for 6 weeks before this fight.  While the fight was close, I lost in a split decision, and it gave me the same wake up call that Royce Gracie gave the world when he won UFC 1 in 1993.  I knew then this was something that I HAD to learn.

To make a long drawn out love story into something short and sweet.  I spent more and more of my time in the gym.  Eventually realizing that this was the life path for me.  I have reached a crossroads in my life and have come to the realization that at age 21 it is time to either take a risky plunge into full time training and accomplish something great, get lost in the seemingly infinite crowd of people trying to find their way through the American education system.

I chose the former.  I had always felt my future laid outside the world of endless 8 hour days, and working simply to make a living.  I wanted something more, and in Jiu Jitsu I had found it; a way to spend my life doing what I love.  In this blog, hope to inspire others to do the same.  To go after what they want and leave behind the limitations of what they think is possible.  To forget the underestimations of themselves and just take a leap of faith.  This is the story of my leap of faith.  This is the live update of what happens to me as I decide not to believe that growing up means making compromises.  This is my journey into the alternate universe that is Jiu Jitsu.

I have quit school, working part time between my training sessions to pay for training and things related to it, and moved in to a small room in the back of the gym.  It's all or nothing.  Let's see how this works out for me.