Defining ourselves ...

We shouldn’t let our ground game be defined by say, our half-guard … any more than we should let the larger aspect of who we are be defined by our bank account balance, the car we drive, etc. 

If our whole ground game is based on half-guard - and we lose that position, we may find ourselves left wanting …

If our whole life is about the business of making money - and we lose that money, we may find we have nothing left to live for. 

But if our whole life is about having fun - and we never spend a thought on our financial future, we may wake up one day and find we have no means to do the things we want to do.

As in all things - what we need is balance.

Having said that though - I do believe in 'going deep', 'drilling down', and 'staying focussed' ... it's just that I don't believe it is healthy to do that forever and allow that one thing to define who we are. We should be like the meerkat ... drill down, go deep ... but come up and take a look around every now and then, and get some perspective.

For those of us who see our martial arts practice as a metaphor for life … we should be able to accept that a single-minded narrow-focus on one thing, can often leave us ‘wanting’ in other areas. We are, at the end of the day, defined by the ‘totality’ of who we are - and not about that ‘awesome-one-thing’ that may or may not set us apart … JBW