Important Questions

Earlier this week, I was asked a question:

How do you get good at Jiu Jitsu for real?

My truly best answer is: Being Methodical

When people first start training Jiu Jitsu, they notice the following benefits:

Improvement in health, fitness, and vitality.

Learning something in a step by step manner

Self Defense

Stress Relief

Paying closer attention to diet, due to requirements placed on the body

Teaching others; family or friends the self defence techniques

Enjoyment of seeing improvement in your skills

Co-operative learning

Becoming more scientific and methodical in how you learn

Learning a proven martial art

Friendships

Having to stay present in the moment

Ego balance

Confidence

Playfulness

Now this is by no means a comprehensive list, but we ask ourselves, are these benefits real?  If they are, then how long do we want to keep these great benefit it our lives?  In terms of cross over potential into the rest of our lives, it’s a huge idea.  Because, if the benefits are truly real, that would be the reason people fall in love with Jiu Jitsu training.

When you fall in love, you go on a mission to learn and experience as much as possible.  Generally this mission is something like the following:

You desire to do Jiu Jitsu more often.

You desire to become proficient in the art.

You desire to gain recognition for your achievements in the art.

You desire to share the art

Once you discover a mission, it feels amazing.  It’s like one of those times you know what you want to do in life.  The next step becomes you start making goals.  Now this is the most important step that requires the most thought.  If you don’t think this one through, you may end your career and lose sight of all of the real benefits of the art.

If you look back at the benefits we listed, and what kind of a mission that it put you on, your ultimate goal in Jiu Jitsu should be:

To be able to practice Jiu Jitsu for the rest of your life.

In order to be able to experience all of the great benefits for as long as possible in life.

And how do we do this:  By being methodical.

So it comes full circle.  Being methodical, helps us “get good”, it helps us experience the benefits for longest amount of time in our lives, and helps us achieve any goal on the journey.