Limitless Monday – Love to Hate

Limitless Monday – Love to Hate

As I wiped my brow of the sweat pouring into my eyes, our Sensei took his position at the front of Thursday night’s Jiu-Jitsu class. It had been a tough one. More brutal than usual. My knee was throbbing. My chin and throat were sore from the constant attention they had received from my opponents who were intent on putting me to sleep. “Perhaps I am too old for this sh*t” I contemplated. Tommy our Sensei began talking.

I knew right away his words were destined for this week’s Limitless Monday!

Here is what Tommy said, paraphrased.

“I met a student today at Renzo’s (Renzo Gracie BJJ in Williamsburg, NY) and asked him if he competed. He replied ‘I compete all the time, and I hate it. But honestly, I love to hate it.'”

I thought about those words for a minute, and realized it’s a lesson we can all learn from.

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Those few words demonstrate a lot. Above all it shows this man’s immense discipline. He is no doubt destined for great accomplishments.

For us mere mortals it’s a lesson that the key to life is showing up. Every time you show up, although you won’t recognize it, you are making small incremental improvements. Over a few weeks, you won’t notice any difference in your performance. Some weeks you may even feel like you are going backwards. Over a year or more though you are going to witness drastic improvements.

Showing up and not surrendering is the key to success in life. Most of us throw in the towel when we feel we are not progressing fast enough. When we quit, we are failing to give our brain and body sufficient time to adapt to our new endeavor. Seeing someone who started a new experience at the same time as us go on to thrive when we quit early can be extremely demoralizing.

When I began my Jiu-Jitsu journey, I was by far the worst in the class. Every roll ended the same way, pain then submission. Sometimes as I walked to class I would hope that certain people would be taking the night off. However, I had the same conversation with myself over and over, “it’s those people that will make me better. If I pick and choose my battles and avoid going to class tonight, I won’t make any progress.”. It’s the same in life. Despite the challenges we face, we must continue showing up.

If you say, “I hate math,” or realize you don’t enjoy selling; if you admit you can’t do pull-ups or don’t know how to defend yourself — you’ve inadvertently identified the areas you must conquer. It is the challenges you find uncomfortable that, once mastered, will have the biggest impact on your life.

You will not progress by focusing exclusively on what you love doing. For example, if you play tennis and find you have a weak shot, most of us have a tendency to avoid that weakness and focus on our strongest shot. The player that achieves greatness is the one that decides enough is enough; they choose to turn that weakness into a strength. It often becomes their dominant shot, having spent so much time perfecting it.

Today, focus on what makes you uncomfortable. That is what will lead to greatness.

Happy Monday!

Banner Image: Uncomfortable. Image Credit – Talles Alves