In October, just shy of 10 months after starting, I will be fighting in my first Brazilian Jiu-jitsu competition.
And the odds are against me, the chances of fighting someone with as little minutes on the mats as me are few and far between, actually there is more chance of an honest man turning up in Westminster.
So why am I doing it?
Because at the start of every year I list potential things that are challenging.
So in January, 6 weeks after starting, I asked my professor what would be a challenge for a man like myself in Bjj.
I was thinking along the line of:
How many stripes on my belt would be a good target by the end of the year?
How many days of training would be competitive?
You know, that type of thing.
His reply.
"If you want to challenge yourself then you have to compete by the end of the year".
I can say with honesty at that moment that my april shrank a little bit.
that wasn't the expected reply.
"You said you wanted to challenge yourself. the way to challenge yourself is to compete".
So here we are, less than a month out and confidence is hardly sky-high, however, there will be more learned from doing it then hiding from it.
And, I can't really fail.
I can win, I can lose, but I can only fail if I don't compete.
People think they are afraid of failure.. but that's just not true.
what people are actually afraid of is being seen as a failure by others.
That's the painful part, there will be the odd guy that says;
"No not me, I don't care what others think"
OK, if that's the case I'm gonna have you just think that you fail every day in one shape or form,
You set targets, things that need to be done, food you’re gonna eat or not eat, changes you're gonna make and you fail to do them.
The reason why it's not painful is that no one even knows about it.
You've just failed in private, and it's only you that knows it.
If you think different, write a list of everything you plan to do and tell EVERYONE.
Failing in public opens up two things.
Criticism from others and showing our weakness.
We all have weaknesses, (just take a look at Arsenals back 4, I've seen monkey poo fights in the zoo that have more organisation.)
If you don't have a fear of failure then you can take action.
So if you have something you want to do, tell people. It will keep you accountable and motivate you even more to move.
You still might not go through with it but your commitment will be increased, due to the chance of public ridicule and facing it will make you stronger mentally.
If you want to become stronger mentally, fitter and have a golf swing that is more powerful, then there is something for you.
It's here
https://www.johnseton.com/golfmob-online-plan
But, if you are not doing something because of what others might think or say, you are holding yourself back from growth and improvement.
Even if you do mess up, people will only care for a second before they go back to worrying what others think of them.
Why give them the satisfaction.
Do something today that you've been putting off, and just see where it takes you.
John Seton
