Leave your ego at the door

Ego can be a crippling thing.

Behind our ego lies a subtle intelligence; one, that, if sensing we are likely to fail at something, quietly offers up rationalisation for why we shouldn’t even try. It guarantees that we never fail by not letting us attempt in the first place.

Paying less attention to the voice of the ego is the first step in putting ourselves on a path to greater learning. When I became more and more content with being able to try and fail, I began to improve my ability to acquire new skills at an ever-increasing rate.

Children are the best example of effortless learning; and the reason they learn so quickly and without apparent effort is because they are simply more okay with failure than are most adults. As children grow up and turn into teenagers and adults, they generally become more and more self-conscious; and this is precisely when they become far less willing to take risks.

Risk-taking is absolutely necessary for growth, discovery, learning and understanding. One of the most important functions of a teacher is to create an environment wherein students are comfortable with risk-taking.

JBW

Life takes many an unexpected turn. We cannot predict it’s every twist; nor what unexpected opportunities can arise out of hardship and difficulty. We can though, know with complete certainty that our lives will eventually come to an end, and so we can never afford to put off the living of such; not even for a day. What lies around the corner, none of us can fully know. Whether we accept it or not, life is, and always will be, an exploratory journey. As is the case with all exploration, if the unfolding trek doesn’t succeed in killing us, it will almost certainly provide us with instruction. The unexpected, and how we react and learn from it, can be one of the most powerful drivers of our existence. Don't just expect the unexpected, revel in it: JBW

Diversity ....

Diversity … a word I like. I like diversity in people. I like diversity on the mat. I like diversity in my skill-sets. I like diversity in investments. I like diversity in what I eat. I like diversity in the places I travel to. I like diversity in my training. I like diversity in the thoughts that run through my mind. I like diversity …. in the world. Diversity keeps us awake – keeps us interested – keeps us in a state of childlike wonder. When we are children, we marinate in diversity – when we become adults, it is very easy to fall into a set routines, patterns and habits that keep us blinkered to the possibility that diversity offers. Diversity … JBW

Head in the GAme

There’s ‘going through the motions’ and then there’s getting your ‘head in the game’. We lift performance considerably when we apply our full attention to what we are doing. This may sound and obvious and easy, even natural thing to do; but in today’s world, where things pull our attention to and fro, it can be almost counter-intuitive to place all of our attention on the thing we are trying to do. I know in my own case, I am guilty finding some pleasure in the act of multi-tasking. I can write (as I am doing right now), have something playing on TV, something also playing on my laptop, while carrying out some kind of broken conversation with my wife Melissa … it is fairly easy for me to do this – as I guess it is for most people – and I have to say, most times, the more action going on, the more I like it … But when we really want to do well, we should invest most or all of our mental faculties on the task at hand. Keeping our head in the game requires, at least in my own case, a certain discipline. My natural state of being is to entertain random and oblique thoughts – (I think my teachers used to call this ‘day-dreaming’) – but I do almost always do better (except when what I am doing requires a certain level of creativity) when I get my head in the game – and keep it there. JBW

Driven by what others think ...

For most people, the need for social acceptance is a very powerful force indeed. In fact, it is the hidden driver behind many of our behaviours, particularly when we are young. This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective – to put it in the simplest of terms: if the tribe didn’t like you – your chances for survival were dramatically reduced. If your tribe liked you a lot – then you had ‘credit’ in the bank with them, for those times when you needed care or protection. When I was a youngster, I had very few friends, particularly, between the ages of 10 to maybe 15. I remember feeling lonely, isolated and became very self-conscious about what I said, what I wore, how I looked, etc. I did not enjoy that period of my life very much. For me, things changed when I took up martial arts training – beginning with amateur wrestling when I was about 15 years if age. This built in me a kind of confidence that I had not previously possessed. That inner confidence allowed me to care less and less about what others thought of me – which in turn made me less, self conscious about what I wore, what I said, what I looked like. It was only when I became physically confident, that my mental confidence began to improve. In a relatively short space of time, I found that I didn't need to conform to earn te respect of others. The most that conformity could offer, was a way of blending in – a way of not being noticed. Now that would have been great, during those times when I felt victimised – but now that the bullies were looking elsewhere for their much-preferred easy target, I didn’t need to ‘travel unnoticed’. I began to more highly value my own ideas, my own way of being in the world, my own opinions (perhaps a little too much) and my own decisions. I no longer need the approval of others – I was no longer driven by what others think. It was that process that took me onto a path that has been underfoot my whole life. I like to listen to the opinions of others, of course, because there are many far wiser and better than I, but in the end, I make up my own mind, formulate my own opinions and decisions. Your life is your own. Learn from others - of course; but don't conform for conformity's sake. The more you stand on your own two feet, the more others will come to accept you for being your own person. There may be a teething process to go through at first - a bit of pain to begin with - but the prize is worth it - to live creatively with a real sense of freedom and self-worth. JBW

How WINNING is done

Winning is done through consistent effort. Consistent effort – not to be confused with occasional effort or fine weather effort. Consistent and determined effort is about grinding it out – day after day; sometimes this is fun and joyful; at other times it can seem fruitless, or even tough going. Winning is not for everyone; nor should it be; winning is for those who keep taking steps forward when common sense is telling you to stop. Winners experience more loss that most everyone else; they lose more because they do more, try more and keep trying even though the rewards for doing so, seem so paltry and at times, just not worth it. Winners fall off their skateboards and surfboards more often, they fall off the rock-face more often; they get bitten more often, kicked more often, choked more often, lost more often, crash more often, go broke more often, etc, etc. Over-achieving isn't done by doing what most everyone else does - and nothing more - it is done by doing what others are unwilling to do. It is all about the 'doing'. Winners are 'do-ers'. It’s that simple. JBW

Another lap around the sun ...

Another year - another lap around the sun. I am sitting in my chair, in my house, with my family - waiting out the last hour before we watch the midnight fireworks. I am also aware that my home is squared away in a nice part of Geelong - in the state of Victoria, in the southern part of the continent known as Australia. Australia, I also realise, is a great part of this spinning globe we call 'earth'; itself taking up the third orbital path around the sun we call sol. Sol, so I am told by those who understand better than I - is a relatively small and typical solar body, residing in the outer reaches of a Galaxy we call the Milky Way, that contains 200 billion odd other suns. Our Galaxy, is only one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in this reality we call the universe - and quantum physicists will tell you that a strong possibility exists, that for all practical (or impractical) purposes, there may well be an infinite number of universes. When I was a youngster, my father painted a dymaxion skymap of the world on our lounge room wall - he was always one for seeing the 'big picture' I guess. I like to think that I inherited some small part of his very interesting way of looking at the world and the way in which he lived his life in it. Each of us have an unknown amount of time left to live, love and adventure on this small spinning marble before we shuffle off at journey's end. I wish you all the happiest and most fulfilling of adventures. Don't be hypnotized by the mundane - go hard. JBW

We choose for now - we choose for later

When we are presented with strong excuses to forgo good habits - this is when we see the exceptional make their split from the rest. It's christmas - and we are faced with mountains of unhealthy food and an opportunity to stop training for a bit. But these are still 'choices'. When we choose, we choose for now and we choose for later; and it's usually easier to make those choices based on what we would like right now as opposed to an, as yet unrealised consequence, that may, or may not, manifest at a later date. We are so very fortunate in that we have more choice available to us than most of the inhabitants of this spinning globe - but remember, when we choose - we choose for now and we choose for later. I ate more than my share these past few days - so now, I am off to do some training - and try to bring balance to the equation for vital living. JBW

Finding the thread

This is the key to my most commonly utilized problem-solving strategy. We have a tendency to always look for a quick and often dynamic solution to any given problem. The reason for this can be traced to our life as hunter-gatherers – when we often didn't have the luxury of being able to ‘ponder’ a problem over a cup of tea; to increase our chances for survival in difficult situations, our brains needed to ‘gulp’ down all the information available in a split second, and come up with a rapid solution – that hopefully kept us alive long enough to tell the story at a later date. My own observation is that we still, to a large degree, react to emergencies (read: problems) much the same way. BJJ example: Stuck under side control – we ask ourselves – ‘can we escape?’ and we put in one large effort, and then get the answer – ‘No!’ we cannot escape. SWAMP example: Neck deep in the quagmire, we ask ‘can we get out? – answer again – NO! FINANCIAL example: $100K in bad debt – we ask, can we fix this? – answer again – No! RELATIONSHIP example: Bad partnership – we ask – can we make this work? – answer again – No!’ Of course the answer is so very often No – because it did after all, take time for the particular problem to fully evolve. The real hiccup is this … in each of the above examples, we have asked the wrong question. The question should have been this – ‘Can we improve our situation by 5%? The answer to that question would probably have come back a resounding – Yes! If you want to rip a sweater in half – you don’t want to try to grab it in one large bunch and pull it apart – instead, you want to find the thread, that once pulled, begins unraveling the whole thing. There is almost always a thread – it is just a matter of finding it, and then focusing on it. Last thing to consider – and this goes unnoticed by almost everyone – if we have proven that we cannot notice small erosions in our situation (eg: gaining weight – bit by bit, over time – before finally asking one day ‘how did I get 40Kg overweight?) – then we have proven that we probably are incapable of noticing small improvements in our situations as well. So when we lose 1kg – we look in the mirror, fail to notice the improvement and so give up on our efforts. Getting people to notice their small incremental improvements is a very important part of high-level coaching/teaching. So don’t try to solve large problems in their entirety – instead, try to find the small thread that, once pulled, will start to unravel the whole thing. And secondly, once you start pulling that thread, notice that you are indeed, getting somewhere. There you go – that’s my Finding the Thread problem solving strategy – I hope you find it helpful. Best wishes: JBW

The Munter …

This is an old-school concept – that so very often, is missing on many a martial arts mat. I do see it’s opposite every now and then; some higher rank ‘munter’, who is all about himself, and who doesn’t spare a thought about his training partner. To compound matters, our overly self-involved munter is also likely to be found paying only cursory interest (seemingly under sufferance) to what the instructor is talking about – presumably because he doesn’t want his peers and lesser mortals to think that he could possibly learn something new – as of course, he has seen it all before. Most schools have had the odd munter in their midst at one time or another – but usually, the munter (such a good word) doesn't last long and leaves for other pastures – pastures where he is given the respect he is due. But every now and then, the munter sticks around and achieves high rank – usually because there is some kind of pay-off for him; and this is when it turns into a bit of a problem. It is a problem for three main reasons; firstly, because he doesn't care about others, he injures others who are there to learn, grow and improve – sometimes causing them to seek other pastures. Bad! Secondly, he sets a bad example; a bad ‘tone’ that other, more malleable students may start to emulate; one bad apple can spoil a whole box-full. And thirdly, he can place an unwarranted level of demand on the teacher; who can be fooled into giving the munter extra attention thereby taking his focus away from the more-deserving students. I have a simple strategy for dealing with munterism; I ignore them. If they demonstrate a corrosive effect on the class or the culture of the school – which they usually do – I ask them to leave. Get rid of one munter and the students, the culture and the school will flourish. The higher the munter’s rank; the more important it becomes to deal with him. I always advise school-owners to cull their student-base of all munters; and then sit back and watch the school grow! JBW

Death of the Noticing Machine

I think that to a large degree, we have lost touch with our ability to NOTICE things. The world we live in, with busy routines, endless media intrusions, technology, etc, just isn’t all that conducive to the habit of NOTICING things in our environment. 10,000 years ago, in hunter-gathering mode, I bet we would have been awesome NOTICING MACHINES. We would have had to be – our survival would have depended on it. Nowadays though, we don’t need to Notice all that much, and we can still get by quite nicely. So we don’t notice, when we put on a few extra kilos, we don’t notice when small erosions begin occurring in the landscapes of our lives – then one day we look up and ask ‘wow, how did I get so overweight? How did I lose all that money? How did my relationship become so bad? It all starts with small erosions – erosions that we fail to notice – when it would have been easy to do something about it. The flip side of this coin is that we also tend not to notice the small gains we make; the small improvements (in performance, etc) So then we tend to become discouraged, and perhaps make a change in direction – when all we need to do was keep going! Our inability to notice small changes can really bring us undone. This is why many people stop their martial arts training – they fail to notice that they are actually making great gains; for exactly the same reason that they fail to take notice of the small erosions in their lives. Failing to notice – that’s the Achilles heel of us all. JBW

I can read the future

Yes – it’s true, I can. I predict the sunrise tomorrow, whether or not I am here to see it. I predict the tide will come in and go out again, etc. So yes, many things are predictable but many again, are not. But this is not enough of a reason to just ‘go with the flow’ on absolutely everything. We all may be likened to leaves floating in the current of life; the predictable part is the direction in which the river is flowing, the unpredictable part is what lies in wait just around the corner … but you can float along if you like – and enjoy the scenery, or you can paddle hard every now and then and take some control over the path you take. Paddle and cruise – paddle and cruise – knowing when to do which, now that is the trick worth learning: JBW

A Blowfish Experience

Eating blowfish, by all accounts, can be a delicious experience – but if, for some reason, it is not prepared JUST RIGHT, the experience can be anything but delicious – it can be deadly. The same process, albeit it a more benign version, is at play when we learn things … There are certain techniques that if not executed technically, can result in a worsening of our situation. Ie: we try the new technique, do not execute it correctly, and we suffer as a result. Now that’s not so bad in and of itself, but our natural and instinctive reaction to that ‘failure’ is the real killer. When we pay a big price for failing at a technique (or most other things for that matter) we tend to shy away from trying it again – and we suffer the effects of a Blowfish experience. Not all techniques are Blowfish techniques – try a figure four armlock from the mount –and if it doesn't work, no biggie! But try headlock control, and if you are missing a few fundamental and vital nuances, you will end up with your opponent playing the role of a human backpack. It’s just important to know which techniques are of the Blowfish variety. The best tip is this: gain intimate and deep knowledge of every technique you do – develop the habit of technical excellence. Prepare that Blowfish well: JBW

My Teaching Style

No – I do not teach STYLE … I am anything but stylish. But I do have my own style of teaching. I am often asked a question; and was asked it the other day by the excellent Travis Browne, at a seminar I took in Auckland – and it was ‘Where do I derive my teaching/coaching style from? And what are the ‘drivers’ that differentiate me from other coaches?” The full answer would no doubt be overly long and boring – but the highlights might be instructive, so here goes: - first and foremost, my teaching style stems from a place of passion. I am very passionate about my martial arts training and cannot help but love sharing it with like-minded people. - I am very analytical and like taking things apart to see how they work; I love sharing this process with other people. I believe deeply in the power of ‘understanding’ – as opposed to the idea of ‘artless mimicry’. - I derive immense satisfaction from be able to shift people from ‘unable’ to ‘able. I believe anything can be taught if the process is delineated with enough clarity. - I take risks – all the time. I do teaching experiments, all the time. I turn left, instead of right to see what happens, all the time. I am not content to stay with the tried and true, it doesn’t fulfil my need for adventure. - I enjoy seeing how the right kind of word-play effects outcomes in performance; hence at times, I come across as a little eccentric in my coaching style and phrasing. But I want results. - And regarding results; I am very outcome and results driven. My focus is rarely on my own performance levels (or looks) when teaching; I am fully prepared to look foolish if it gets me the results I want. - Finally, but perhaps most importantly of all; I love to draw the deeper lessons that I have learned in my martial arts training and bring them out and illustrate how they relate to the larger canvas of our lives. Deep learning’s are to be found everywhere and they hold so much more value than the base combative value of what we do as martial artists. And in using those lessons in our lives away from the mat, we are tapping into what true leverage is all about. So there are a few of the underlying drivers that power my teaching style – I hope they can be of use to you: JBW

Different can be good.

I remember when I first began school – the teacher asked if anyone knew the alphabet, and up went my hand. When I was asked to give it a go .. I recited it backwards – because my father had taught it to me that way – a mystery as to why and I was ridiculed by the teacher as a result. I remember not feeling all that embarrassed actually – and so began my defiance of all things authoritarian. It wasn’t long before I had a ribbon tied in my hair (by a teacher) for playing on the girls swings in the playground – yikes! So in my youth – and I imagine it was this way for many of my readers – looking at things differently than most, or acting a little differently, caused me some amount of difficulty. Now though, I understand the following truth – if you want to achieve excellence in life you need to carve your own path – you need to think a little differently, you need to behave a little differently, you need to have a different attitude, you need to prepare differently, plan differently, etc. If you are happy and content to settle for average, then being different may not be the best option. But if you want something else … something other … something exciting … a little difference can make all the difference. JBW

To Gi or not to Gi ...

Here in the antipodes, summer is nearly upon us. It's the perfect time of the year to shed the Gi and do some slippery mat-work. But what are the pro's and con's of no-gi training??? Training without the Gi can be frustrating for the beginner and an argument can be made that it can retard their progress. This can be likened to trying to teach a child to ride a bike, and doing so, without training wheels on a wet, steep hillside. The lack of a Gi makes for a much faster fight and therefore makes it more difficult for the beginner to pick up basic strategy ... in much the same way as a novice chess player would find it difficult to play a game of speed-chess. The other consideration, particularly if a part of our motivation (especially when we start out) is to prepare ourselves for real world confrontation/violence - then we need to understand that clothing plays a very important role in the grappling dynamic (chokes, grips, etc). But now to the advantages of shedding the Gi ... A more slippery fight is a faster fight and so providing you are ready for it, the cardio element becomes more challenging. And the fact that the fight is moving more quickly, forces us to calculate more quickly and improve our processing power under duress. Another consideration is that no-gi training provides a slight advantage for the less-skilled of two opponents in most training sessions ... this is because it is a little more difficult to hold/control an opponent in the no-gi scenario and so the 'bottom' grappler have an edge that he or she doesn't usually have. This can be a good 'class leveler', squishing up the 'bell-curve' a little. No-gi can be a lot of fun and in hot weather, a much welcomed change of pace for the class ... roll on summer: JBW

Work & Play

At the risk of offending some - I'd like to point out that I believe that we, as a species, have been here quite a long time. And for much of that time, we didn't live to 'make money' - we didn't live to 'top up our super' - pay off our mortgage - pay taxes - etc; rather, we hunted for our food, hiked and explored our environments in an effort to gather our food - improvised weapons and tools that made our lives more comfortable - gave extra food that we caught or gathered, to our friends and neighbours - told stories by te light of an evening fire, in an effort to both entertain and educate .... In times past, life was much simpler - status was bestowed upon us if we were of value to our tribe - if we were of no value, or had nothing to contribute, then our status would be low, and our chances of survival would be drop. The more we brought to the table (often literally) the greater our status in the tribe. For mush of our past history, life would have been tough - but things would have had a certain clarity that they no longer have today. Martial arts training, in my view, gives us back some of these things - things we have lost, as we have become more 'civilised'. BJJ offers a 'right of passage', it offers opportunities to be 'of value' to the tribe (other students at the school) - it offers an environment where 'earned knowledge' affords respect and is valued by others - it offers 'growth through physical challenge', etc. Life is today's society has us distracted at every turn, stressed, badly prioritised and often unhealthy (both physically and mentally) as a result - martial arts training is a great way to bring some badly needed balance back into our 21st century lives: JBW

The OBLIQUE VALUE ...

Whenever we undertake something - learning a new technique/skill, deciding on a particular course of action - we do so, usually because there is an OBVIOUS VALUE in doing so. I write a new book, sell it, and I get a few thousand dollars in income from it (if all goes well) - that's an obvious value. I learn a new sweep, and make it work in sparring - that's an obvious value. You get te idea ... What is really worth considering though, is the less obvious or OBLIQUE VALUE thta we get from learning new things, or taking new courses of action. To re-visit the two former examples that I have given: if I write a book and publish it, I might receive a few thousand dollars income from it (obvious value) but I also learn HOW TO write a book, HOW TO get it published, HOW TO promote it (something I don't do well), etc - in short, I have acquired a new set of skills that may be used again and again, perhaps even in novel ways. This is the LESS-THAN-OBVIOUS or OBLIQUE VALUE from undertaking the task. If I learn a new sweep and get to apply it in sparring, I get that OBVIOUS VALUE from it - but I have also learned to use my body in a new way, I have a new way of moving, of thinking about things - these are skills that may serve me well in many other aspects of my game - this is the OBLIQUE VALUE that I receive. To use a wonderful example of how this works in the natural world, I will use an example that genius extraordinaire Buckminster Fuller used to cite on occasion: consider a bee, zooming from flower to flower, collecting pollen to take back to the hive. The bee's primary purpose in this activity, the OBVIOUS VALUE if you like, is to collect food - but what about the less obvious (but incredibly important) value of the cross-pollination that occurs as a result; flowers get to multiply! In my view, it often seems that the OBLIQUE VALUE can be greater (and further reaching) than the obvious value whenever we learn a new skill or take an action. Perhaps by weighing up the less obvious, OBLIQUE VALUE of actions, we can better determine whether the action/decision is a good one to undertake. Worth consideration ... JBW

As a follow up on my last blog - I'd like to talk about TAKING OWNERSHIP. When starting out in BJJ, we may be exposed to only a handful of techniques and therefore we are not all that confused by choice - we either have an answer to a situation and we try to apply the technique we know to that situation, or we don't have an answer - in either case, we either have the tool for the job or we do not - not a lot of confusion. The real confusion begins to creep in, when we start to collect a lot of techniques, loads of options, for any given situation - this can lead to 'mental log jam' - which of the 40 sweeps do I use .... which omoplata do I try to set up ... which escape, etc. I am sure ost blue and purple belts can relate to this problem - and even more so nowadays, when we are bombarded with too much information (Youtube, google, etc) The solution to this problem can be found in 'ORGANISATION'. If you own one house, and only get one lot of bills (gas, electricity, rates, etc) then you might not need a filing system = you just throw them all in the drawer and deal with them as needed. But what if you owned ten houses - then you need not only a good filing system, but a method of prioritising them, etc. The more you know - the more you need to organize that information. One of the first things that is worth doing - is this - to make a clear distinction between 'resource' and 'personal game'. Everything you know and everything you will ever learn, goes into the 'resource' file - whilst those techniques and strategies that you really like to use, they go into the 'personal game' file. Not everything you will learn, will fit your game - but those many techniques that you do not like/use/find a use for in your game - those techniques are still important to remember, because they may give you some other 'less obvious' benefit - or skill - that you might indeed use in your game. And from a coaches point of view - you need to have both deep and broad knowledge so that you can help or teach all kinds of people, not just those who like your own personal 'game. I see a lot of very successful competitors trying to force their game on every one of their students - this is a classic mistake. Clearly, people are different. I have many ways to CATALOGUE techniques and strategies - but one of the most basic methods (one that I have used in more than 25 years of BJJ training) is to catalogue techniques according to POSITION. Eg: If I think SPIDERGUARD - I am immediately clear on what I consider to be the main sweeps from that position, the ways to set up Omoplata from that position, the ways to set up triangle armbars and Kimura's from that position, etc. This simple method works well, because you can add to it easily, over time - but to help you with your personal game - you should always have clarity on which of that collection of techniques (for each position) you prefer to execute first. You might have 12 or 15 techniques in the SPIDERGUARD file for example - but you are very clear that your favourite technique to try is the TRIANGLE - for example. You then, over time, become clearer on how your opponents will tend to react to your triangle - and you will come up with combinations, by reaching into the rest of your SPIDERGUARD RESOURCE file. To help with all this - a journal (of some sort) may really help. Don't be too worried about keeping it all need and overly ordered - just do SOMETHING. Even just thinking about organisation the information in your head - really helps. Best wishes: JBW

Journal up ...

I have long-since developed a habit of keeping training journals. I keep various training journals – I have training journals for my seminars, in which I lay out my seminar plan - and I amend, add to or subtract from it, during the actual seminar. This allows me to better plan the next seminar for my return visit; I can go over the notes I made on the last subject matter we covered and how the students coped with it. I also keep training journals for some of my private students – it helps me keep track of what we have done, where they are in the development of their game, what they need to cover in the future – etc. And, I keep notes on my own training – things I need to look at in the future – random ideas, thoughts, new techniques – and novel approaches to teaching that I might want to try out. I still have old ‘personal training journals’ that date back to the mid-80’s. I rarely refer back to them though, as the main benefit was to be had in the note-taking itself. When we take notes, or scribble and draw – we have to process information differently in our mind. Before we describe something in words, we need to think about it, to go over the ‘process’ in our minds-eye – and it is this value that get from keeping a journal. Of course if my wife reads this – she will have a strong argument for clearing out my bookshelf. Yikes. Seriously though, I encourage everyone to keep a training journal. It doesn't have to be elaborate – it may only consist of scribbling down a few words chosen to trigger a memory – it can be highly descriptive – it can incorporate drawings, stick-figures – it doesn’t really matter. Regardless of the approach you take – I guarantee it will help you in some way. Journal –up today: Best wishes: JBW

Change ...

Look around – carefully; and you will notice that everything is changing, all of the time. Raindrops are falling, each second the world is different, unique, as it was never before; each leaf moving on each tree, constructing a new and unique world each and every second. So too are we, cells are degenerating, regenerating; our brains think new and novel thoughts, each and every second. On the mat, as we roll with our friends, each moment is different than the last, each grip is slightly different, pressures ebb and flow, the fight unfolds differently this time than it did last time. When people tell me they are bored – I tell them to open their eyes: JBW

Monkey on the back

Fear ... can be a crippling thing. It can be like having a monkey on your back that just won't go away. Most of my readers may not be able to relate to this post - as 'fear' may manifest only as an occasional disturbance in an otherwise comparatively pleasant existence - but for those who live with fear, 'day in day out' - life can seem very difficult if not completely pointless, at times. But that monkey can be tamed - and even befriended - with some considerable effort and a willingness to change for the better. I have had the opportunity to teach quite a number of people, who have been in some way or the other, partially paralysed by the fear that sits on their back. The first step in the taming of the monkey, is to acknowledge that you are not alone, others have been through the same thing, and have come out better and stronger for the experience. Start small, embrace something unfamiliar, something outside of your comfort zone - go through it - experience it, marinate in it - feel the feelings - then ask yourself afterward - did it kill you? yes - that's right, you are still here - and more than likely, none the worse for wear. JBW

Uncertain Times

“What lies around the corner, no one can know. Whether we accept it or not, life is, and always will be, an exploratory journey. As is the case with all exploration, if the unfolding trek doesn’t succeed in killing us, it will almost certainly provide us with instruction. If we want to learn things that others do not know, we need to be willing to do the things that other people do not do.” - Excerpt from the Rogue Black Belt series. My travels this year, both domestic and international have highlighted to me that the world is a little more uncertain than perhaps it has been during the decade just gone. To keep it all in perspective though, the world has pretty much always been an uncertain place – for the larger part of man’s history, we have never known what has awaited us around the corner; in short, we are generally short-sighted and have a very poor record of being able to predict the future. It is only when we have lived through a few months, or years of relative stability that we convince ourselves that this is the natural state of the world – when in fact, I do not believe it is. The world is a dynamic environment that is full of surprises and unexpected turns, some pleasant, others, not so. But what is it about us, as a species that has allowed us to flourish and do so well? For my money, it is largely our ability to adapt to rapid change that really sets us apart from other species on the planet. Life is uncertain, we can of course, make plans and have some idea of how our futures might unfold but in embracing our natural talent for adaptation we can more easily roll with the punches that life will no doubt throw our way. Both on and off the mat; we need to embrace this special talent. JBW

No Growth in Comfort

The unfolding adventure that is our life should be exciting, instructive and always filled with a little uncertainty; the uncertainty is what makes it an adventure. As we live this adventure, we succeed, fail, learn, love and slowly gather our power. The way forward becomes a little less rocky and more full of possibility. As we learn to better know ourselves and better know the world, we equip ourselves more suitably for the unknown that is the future. - Excerpt from the Rogue Black Belt series.

I am often asked, particularly by beginners, for advice concerning the uncertainty and confusion they sometimes feel on the mat during their first year or so of training. Although it is true that this feeling of uncertainty, can to some extent be mitigated by designing a basic ‘game-plan’ that suits their particular physical and mental capabilities, it is this very feeling of uncertainty that is in itself highly instructive. It is good to experience a little uncertainty in our lives; as this builds and strengthens our ability to adapt and overcome; the last thing we want (if we want growth) is to have the same experience, day in, day out. Or as my good friend Geoff Thompson likes to say – “There is no growth in comfort’. How very true – thanks Geoff: JBW

Life Instructs

Day two of our holiday in Aitutaki (in the Cook Islands), my boy Felix was impaled by a Stonefish; a highly venomous species of fish that inhabits much of the pacific region. Apparently, it is about the most painful thing one can endure – in rare cases, people die from the venom. So Melissa and I were fairly stressed as we had to sit back and watch him endure hours of pain – before a combination of local remedies and modern medicine brought things under control. He is almost back to normal now – some 6 days later – but then today, being unable to swim after the stonefish injury, he was wading around the edge of the lagoon (super frustrated) when he forgot he had his beloved Ipod in his pocket, and he walked into the water again, submerging it and killing it completely. Needless to say, he was heartbroken. He has had his share of both physical and emotional pain this past week – but this is exactly how we learn. We experience; and we learn. These are not the kind of things you can learn from listening to others or from reading books; this is the kind of stuff you can only learn by experience. Life instructs: JBW