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…

Today, it occurred to me that achieving success in life is a lot like setting up a good arm bar. For those that don’t know, an arm bar is a submission attempt in which you use your body to hyperextend the elbow on someone’s arm. In training, and even fights, the person ‘taps’ before their elbow is hyperextended, unless they are rather dumb, which happens from time to time.

Today I was rolling with a lower belt in Jiu Jitsu. He was a stronger person than me, and weighed about 30 pounds more. I was on my knees in his guard (between his closed legs). He was ripping my right arm with all his strength, desperate to kick his leg over my head and apply an arm bar, similar to the guy on his back in the picture below.  Read more... (604 words, 3 images, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

‘Peter, please don’t touch the stove.‘

PJ: ‘Okay Mom‘

(2 seconds later)

PJ: ‘Owwwwww!!!‘

‘Peter! James! Normandia! What did I just say?!!‘

Welcome to the life of a hardheaded child. Growing up I can certainly say that the best way to get me to do something was to tell me I couldn’t.  It was like a trigger inside my hard head. All I would hear was a voice saying…

‘What do you mean I can’t do it? Who are you to tell me what I can or can’t do? I’ll show you.’

I guess as Humans, we all have our share of hardheaded experiences. For me, it was more of a life theme. I was as hardheaded a child as you could imagine. I simply learned better from experience than anything else. I didn’t just want to know why, I wanted to experience why.  Read more... (1123 words, 3 images, estimated 4:30 mins reading time)