You're the Motivation

​I don’t think I did anything right in Jiu Jitsu for at least 8 years in retrospect. I would say the consensus opinion of my grappling in the first three years, would be that I was terrible. The first time I really remember feeling like my coach thought I had done something well was when I hit a knee bar and won a match on points to get a gold medal as a purple belt. I don’t hand out many compliments, I acknowledge that and it’s something I work on, but at the end of the day external validation isn’t getting you to black belt. Your coach can’t make you walk through that door. Your teammates can’t make you walk through that door. It’s only you, you have to find the reason that you are going to subject yourself to rigorous physical activity over a long period of time to see incremental progress. It’s not something most people can do, and for some that’s okay. If you stick with it though, the amount of things you can take on is pretty incredible. Find a reason to be consistent and just keep showing up, you will have no choice but to excel.