Are you willing to pay the price to make your dream come true?
Quite often, martial artists with competitive aspirations set their sights on becoming world champion. They are given a white belt in jiujitsu, or maybe they buy there first pair of boxing gloves and right then and there they proclaim they are going to become the greatest ever. There is nothing wrong with desiring greatness, but your work ethic has to match the goal you’ve set. To become the greatest in the world in any respective field is going to require a degree of soul crushing effort, intelligent & disciplined training, and consistency over years and years and years. Your life will be consumed by the pursuit of this goal, and if you are willing to sacrifice everything to make it happen then maybe you have a small chance — but if not there is not a chance in hell.
Before you become the best in the world, become the best in the country, before that the best in your province, your city, and first become the best in your gym.
It’s perfectly fine — even necessary — to have a competitive spirit with your teammates. That competitive energy sharpens everyone. Hard sparring, when done at the right times, keeps you sharp and tests your mettle in ways drilling can’t. Those intense rounds, where you’re pushed by someone who rivals you physically and technically, are the most valuable — because on the other side of that intensity is growth.
Competition is the driving force that allows people to test their current level of skill, but your gym is where you forge new skills. In my time training I have seen countless people come and go, but it’s the individuals who have had the mental endurance,the physical durability, and the toughness to push through the many years of hard work that have reached the highest heights. It has taught me that it’s not about where you start, but how far you are willing to push yourself. I have seen people with immense physical talents, not have the mental resilience and self belief to go anywhere meaningful because they consistently got in their own way. On the flip side, I have met real warriors, who were physically unremarkable, be able to push themselves to the limit, and forge themselves into something unrecognizeable to their previous self. Those individuals surrendered themselves to a singular goal, when they began there journey, “I want to become a professional fighter.”
Then it begs to define what does it mean to become a professional fighter. The word professional denotes a degree of seriousness, commitment, and skill related to a specific line of work, and fighters — fighter’s fight. Before this individual sets his sights on the stars, they have to embark on building the staircase that’s going to get them there. You building that staircase is you committing yourself to your craft. That is the bare minimum. Then you must dare to make the climb. You won’t be able to rely purely on talent — you’re going to need to be strategic, consistent, and obsessed. You will have many moments of immense pressure, and you will need to find the grit to thrive in it. You can not want to win, you will have to win, and you’ll have to win at the right time in front of the right eyes. Your time must be spared preciously, comfort will be an afterthought, and your relationships will be strained. Your desire for your goal must be matched with militaristic discipline.
Those moments when you are in there alone — with another man who has trained to destroy you, the world will weigh down heavily on you. The pressure upon you will be palpable. Fear will find you, and in this moment war is waged between doubt and self belief. Your performance is not a testament of that night, but the 1000’s of day’s, the 1000’s of nights of preparation that led up to it. Doubt tries to seep into you like poison, but your confidence in your preparation is the antidote.
When things are easy we say, “it ain’t rocket science.” But remember, there are people out there that build rockets, and blast them off to the stars. That is there profession. They construct these massive metallic vessels, bolstered with cannons of jet fuel, and the most sophisticated technology in aerodynamic propulsion and they wage war against gravity and send these things into outer space. I throw a ball up, the ball comes down — gravity wins. The rocket scientist, puzzled by this physical law, dares to tinker around with his tools, and test the limits of his knowledge. They look up at that starry night sky and say “I’m gonna figure out a way to get up there.”
