Imagine Your Jiu Jitsu in 5 Years

It is five years from now. Imagine:

• You are definitely a lot older than you were, but a lot wiser. If not a lot wiser, a lot more experienced. Time has a way of doing that for everyone.

• You are probably a different rank than what you were before. If you are still at blue, purple, or brown belt, another year isn’t gonna kill ya. It’s hard though. Lots of stickers and kindness will help. So will getting new gear. 🙂

• You’ve probably tapped hundreds or thousands of times to submissions, pressure, awkward positions and out of sheer panic at times. This is practicing communication in Jiu Jitsu and you get better at that no matter what.

• You’ve definitely cried once. Maybe once a week.

• You are starting to understand Jiu Jitsu a little bit more. Not the techniques, but HOW and WHY you like to learn and do Jiu Jitsu your way. This makes every class enjoyable because you know how to adjust the environment and make choices to put you in a state of flow.

• If you relate to Pokémon, then you are the second or third most evolved form. For Pokémon that do not evolve, they have those good one to two shot moves.

• You’ve met, and gushed, over at least one Jiu Jitsu celebrity. A celebrity is someone you admire and someone who inspires you. Instagram followers do not automatically imbue celebrity status.

• You realize that you are consistently NOT the least experienced person in class.

• At times, you may realize that you are the MOST experienced student in class. This moment should be savored with appropriate ego. This means you have worked hard and stuck it out. It means you have grown as a person. (This is true regardless of being the most advanced student, but it will be a good day to submit everyone in a round, should you choose to. Everyone gets one.)

• You will probably have competed and against all imagination, placed on the podium or gotten gold. But, even if you haven’t competed, you will know that, against all odds, you’ve surpassed the prior version of yourself.