Thesis Wednesday: Rationalizing Your Fear = Excuses

Coming Soon!

1) Coming in the next few days, I put together a short instructional video outlining the cross-grip seionage I spotlighted HERE.

    - With help of some training partners, I documented the 3 essential elements to making the throw 1) successful and 2) successful specifically in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition. I also quickly elaborate on why the cross grip variation is the safest of the plethora of versions which abound for the shoulder throw and how to take advantage of the lack of gripping rules in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

Onto Wednesday's Thesis:

There are many reasons people look back on their life and see missed opportunities. They see leaps of faith they did not take.They see books they did not read. Trips they did not undertake. Gambles upon which they opted not to roll the dice.
This is not a post about taking careless gambles and ill-advised risks.
But it is a post about asking yourself "WHY?": 
"WHY" represent the SINGLE most important question which can lead to understanding how we bull&$&$ ourselves rationalize our fear to then form excuses and explanations for why we don't want to do something.

Example:
Accepting that you will never be a world champion in Jiu-Jitsu due to advanced age.
This can be a rational acceptance of the multitude of factors that will prevent you from armbarring Cobrinha the way Rafa Mendes did most recently. (Though, I would counter, the first several instances the two met, Cobrinha gained the upper hand more often than not. Later, as Cobrinha aged, and perhaps as Alliance's leader pointed out Cobrinha did not prepare in Atlanta/he was split between training others and preparing himself), Rafa became the first person on record to submit/armbar Cobrinha at weight as a black belt).

Moving on before my tangent takes control, often we rationalize our fear.
Example:
I want to be in shape before I start training.
Example:
I have ***** blank injury.
-----------------------------------------
If you have a spinal cord injury, this is a legitimate injury.
If you have sharp, shooting pain in your body, this may be a legitimate injury.
Having a sprained wrist is not a reason to avoid rolling. Tuck the hand in your belt and roll.
There is a fine line between legitimate reasons to avoid training, competition, and pursuing a goal and the excuses we tell ourselves to avoid difficult training partners or why we skip class on a given night or why we're too lazy to lift weights or wake up early to lift weights before work.

If Jiu-Jitsu is important to us, or Judo, or grappling, we can often restructure our life in a way that will afford us more time to train. The considerations of family and spouses make this difficult. But for every 20 guys that blame not training on their family, there are those guys who sit the kid in the stroller, put up with the kid asking questions while they are rolling, and get to work getting better, distractions be damned.

For every woman who gains 50 lb's while pregnant, there is a woman (at my gym) who is still doing modified crossfit workouts while pregnant (and she's stronger than and better conditioned than me both while not pregnant and pregnant).

Where some see risk, others see opportunity.

Where some see a walk through the desert and hardship, others see a land of opportunity.
Where some see the risk of injury, others recognize the value of 2 points/takedowns as the opportunity to gain the upper hand at the start of a grappling match.
Where some see a lack of finesse and skill, others recognize that strength and conditioning are an essential component of competition.
Where some blame wrestlers for stalling, others recognize a deficiency in their overall grappling regarding takedowns and transitions to the mat.
Where some people claim they are tired, really, they simply fear being tapped out and so they pack up and head home for the day.

Are you rationalizing your fear?
Are you rationalizing your deficiencies?

These represent hard questions to ask ourselves.
Why do I think the things I do?
Are my reasons valid?
Am I simply avoiding discomfort due to fear or laziness or ignorance?

At the end of the day, you are ultimately responsible for your own progress.
At the end of the day, you are ultimately responsible for allowing your fear or laziness to be an impediment to your success and evolution on the mats.