Time Flies – After visiting family overseas, I felt a profound grief looking at pictures of my family, my little sisters and cousins, who were 8 and 9, are now in their teens and 20s were gone for good. I look at my grandparents and parents the same way, that every day I’m losing them, that every day the youth are constantly growing and changing becoming someone differently.
Some of my friends are starting to go bald, and I can see the grays start coming through, the same is true for me, I cannot stop and even more so I cannot do a rewind, I have learned to cherish moments far better than I used to, I learned that a lot of things that I have are invaluable, my experiences can never be paid for or no money will ever replicate those moments. Some of my friends are a lot more successful compared to me, the one thing that resounded to me a lot more in our conversations is when they said that even with the success that they have achieved to this day they’re dream is still to have all of our friends to stay the same, the same as it was when we were still kids, because those were the happiest, they have ever been.
I then realized that we have the same dreams, I to this day wish for my friends to stay healthy and happy, that one day we will all see each other again, no matter and regardless of our status be the same as we were when we are kids, that we would still laugh at the same things, that we would still be silly and reminisce whatever memories we shared throughout our childhood. As successful as they are, or as rich as they have become, those dreams are relatable, it’s not all the money, fame, or glory rather love, friendship, and happiness.
No amount of money can ever buy those from me or my friends, I have been blessed with very good ones indeed.
However,
No matter how much time flew by, I still am the same, no matter how much I think I’ve changed, no matter how much trauma or lessons I experience a constant in my life was fitness and martial arts. I will never undervalue what the gym and mats provided for me, and I know how important this is to some people. Fitness and martial arts have done a lot for me and I want to help people utilizing everything I have learned from this.
Nate Boyer – After running 100 miles in less than 24 hours.
“The worst part was the expansive flat portions without the ups and downs” ~ Daily Stoic Podcast
It’s pretty simple to see isn’t it, that no matter how good you are in whatever you do, there comes a moment where ups and downs are inevitable, running along the comfort of a flat straight surface sometime isn’t where the magic happens, as you go up the hills, the climb might take a while but as you reach its peak what beauty will it be, but on the other side climbing up that high also means it’s easier to coast and free fall while you’re at the peak, nonetheless you’re still moving forward, I’d rather climb slowly as I try to reach for greater heights and move forward than to spiral down, away from my dreams. It sounds hard but it must be worth it. All the ups and downs are necessary to challenge us during the climb, while at the peak and as we spiral down, the important thing is that we move forward no matter where we’re at.
After 34 published articles, I realized that I learned that none of the things that I feared about before I started matters, I was afraid that I was producing mediocre work, that I was not good enough, that my English is not good enough. On hindsight everything I needed was well within myself already, except for a laptop of course.
That I have more rough drafts than published work, the reality is not all of my work happens on the same day, not even my drafts happen on the same week sometimes. As I consume information some of them change, others contradict while others go hand in hand, an idea I thought great today might be a bad one tomorrow, so to produce something good I have to filter out subpar work, however, this also means I have a lot of information in the vault ready to be fished out for the next one.
A year as a blue belt, it is true what they say, that most blue belts quit after acquiring the blue or miss most of their mat time, in my case most of my injury happened while I was a blue, and I went on a few vacations to see cool places and spent time with loved ones. During this time, I learned how to be kinder to myself where I don’t go agro. I trained intelligently and didn’t go hard in practice all the time; I spent more time resting and recovering and at the same time dedicated a lot of my time reading more books.
I definitely would destroy the white belt version of me. Compared to the white belt me, I can understand and digest more jiu jitsu information. I understand the vocabulary better, I am now a better training partner for sure not only because I have learned to become a better Jiujiteiro but also, I now have more knowledge to share. In that regard, I also realized how bad of a Jiujiteiro I am, that the more I learn about this sport the more I realize that there are levels unimaginable to me, and I know this will take time and I get excited more and more as I learn and fail more and more.
Derek Sivers on the value of mastering something ~ “Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.”
XERGIUS 