Jiu Jitsu Lessons

I haven't posted in a while.  Recent months, however, have been a rough patch for me.  Full of painful decisions and mixed emotions.  It is always these times that I feel I grow the most.  When things are going smoothly in my life I always talk positive.  I tell my self that I will always be positive and always have faith in God to see me through tough times.  When mildly challenging issues arise I stay positive, I have faith and I think, "Wow, I handled that well."

But then the really hard times come, and damn do I lose sight of things.  I've been fortunate in my life to have people who love me and a roof over my head.  I know I have it good, but every once in a while, I find my faith tested.  Every once in a while, I find my self in one of those times when something so big comes down on you that the outlook just seems bleak.  I think its these times, not the good times, that make us who we are.

The last few months have been tough, and I know I can't say I stayed positive though all of it.  While I never thought of giving up, I truly did not want to be where I was.  Being on the tail end of this trial now, I can look back and see the lesson that I am starting to learn, and it is invaluable.  As to what that lesson specific lesson
was, maybe I'll share it in a later post, but I just want to address this in a broader scope right now.  What I've learned is, what ever trial I'm going through, there is a purpose.  I should be thankful in those hard times, learn the lesson that they are teaching me, and them form me into a better, stronger person.

I think this relates back to Jiu Jitsu in many ways.  If you follow this blog you'll know that my life aspirations are in Jiu Jitsu.  If you don't, I think the message will still apply.  On the mat we face many opponents.  Some are better then us and can make us tap.  Others, we can over come with ease.  However, we never improve if we constantly train and spar with the noobies.  We have to get out there and swim with sharks, get our asses kicked,  and learn from it.  That is, I believe, how we get better.

I know I have many hard times in front of me.  I know there will be a lot of good too.  I don't think, however, that any of it will be bad times.  It's all a lesson.  I can learn from all of it, and while I admit that my lack of knowledge and the mass of knowledge to be learned is daunting.  I can't wait to learn it.  Time to do some Jiu Jitsu!

Thanks for reading,

Please help this blog grow by sharing this post,

Nick

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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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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.