Yin vs YangThe Battle for Success in Life

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Article by Peter J. Normandia. Follow me on Twitter.

Every Monday is personal development through Jiu Jitsu…

Yesterday I went to train Jiu Jitsu at my school. Thank goodness, because in NJ today, there is about 6-7 inches of snow, which means no training tonight. I’m glad I got it in yesterday, as these days, I could use every session I can get to improve. The Sunday open mats at my school are always helpful, as you never know who is going to be there.

Yesterday I was rolling with my good friend, who I got my blue belt with. We are both purple belts now, and have been training for awhile together. He fights, and I have cornered him for all three contests. We rolled for a while, neither quite doing anything spectacular, and no one tapping the other. Then, we kind of came to a strange conclusion: Lately our games have been growing stale.

The False Comfort of Success

What I mean by this is we have reached a comfort level on the mat because of our success. We are good enough to survive without a full effort, but due to this, our progress of late has been minimal. We are at the top of the food chain in our school, and some times that’s a bad thing because it means no one is pushing us. It means, to continue to grow, we have to keep pushing ourselves.

You see, to be a winner in Jiu Jitsu, you have to keep that hungry mindset. You have to train on the mat till no one else is there. You have go into a match attacking. You have to be relentless in your pursuit of your opponent. You have to have the mentality of a true winner. This means, your focus is on winning. It is not on losing, or conserving your energy, or fooling around with showcase moves. No, it is focused on being the best you can be at all times, each and every match, consistently.

Since we had grown comfortable in our school, it is easy for us to get slightly lazy. We may leave before everyone else is done rolling. We may take it easy when rolling with others of lesser skill. This sounds fine, till you realize, that while you are getting comfortable, others are gunning for your spot. Continuing to stay comfortable, means you are not progressing.

Life is One Big Jiu Jitsu School

The same goes in life. Sometimes we reach a level in business or our personal life, where we get comfortable. In another words, we settle. We have worked hard as hell to get here, so we figure it’s time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. That is okay from time to time, but if that becomes your everyday mentality, then you will not be comfortable for long.

Lately, these other hungry guys in our gym have been getting better and better. They have been training like we used to. They are hungry for the position we are in.We may be able to fend them off today, but if we lose the mentality that it took us to get where we are, our time feeling comfortable is sure to run out.

It seems, many times in life, we strive to get to a position where we are comfortable, when in reality, it is the uncomfortable positions that take us where we want to be.

Yesterday, my friend & I realized, it’s time to bring back the hunger. Forget all this training light, going easy, or seniority crap. It’s time to rip through people again. It’s time to remember the mentality it took us to get where we are. After all, practice makes permanent.

So for all those out there basking in their success who do not have the luxury of seeing their competitor’s progress, this is a reminder to remember the mindset it took you to get where you are. See what you can do to maintain that mentality as you push forward further than you ever imagined.

Because, itf you enjoy that comfortable feeling for too long, you may wind up like I will: getting choked out, at least, figuratively.

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