Do you let your obstacles define you?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"article":"This past week clearly had a theme of obstacles.\u00a0 Every day at our kid\u2019s summer camp we started the day off with an obstacle course.\u00a0 We had plenty of nerf gun fights that included setting up barriers and obstacles.\u00a0 There were plenty of mental obstacles as well, including overcoming the exhaustion that all the kids started feeling mid-week.\u00a0 My favorite was the Magna-Tile tall tower challenge where the obstacle was how to overcome gravity, height and structural instability.\u00a0 Then at church on Sunday, our guest minister was a woman in a wheel chair who talked all about the obstacles in her life and in the lives of the others she has helped over the past 20 years in dealing with her own situation.\r\n\r\nThe first obstacle in my martial arts journey was actually the reason I started martial arts.\u00a0 This is a rather amazing story and is the lynchpin as to why any of us know each other.\u00a0\u00a0 My senior year in college at Virginia Tech I bent over to pick up a piece of paper and my back locked up on me.\u00a0 It was absolutely the worst experience I\u2019ve ever had with my back.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t even straighten my back lying down.\u00a0 The pain was so bad I almost dropped out of school for that final year.\u00a0 Honestly, I don\u2019t know how I made it through.\u00a0 A friend of mine suggested I try this kung-fu class he was going to.\u00a0 He said it focused more on body motion than fighting.\u00a0 I gave it a try and literally fell in love with it within the first 10 minutes of class.\u00a0 When I moved to MI there was only 1 person in the entire state that taught that same style.\u00a0 That person was my former business partner.\u00a0 Had my back not locked up on me, and had I not known 1 of only about 100 people on a campus of 25,000 people that trained at that kung-fu gym, there is probably no way any of what we all share today ever happens.\r\n\r\nOver the course of time since that fateful day, I have gone from feeling angry towards God for afflicting me like He did, to thanking Him as I realize it was a necessary step to getting me to where I am today.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine how different my life would be had I not bent over to pick up that little piece of paper.\r\n\r\nI\u2019ve talked a bit about obstacles in class lately.\u00a0 We have a couple kids with broken wrists.\u00a0 Those are clearly difficult obstacles to overcome in Jiu-Jitsu class.\u00a0 Most every adult will get minor injuries over the course of their practice.\u00a0 But these obstacles should not stop us in our tracks.\u00a0 When Chad Mendes fought Conor McGregor, he talked about an injury he had in training.\u00a0 He said if your arm is injured, work on your legs.\u00a0 If your legs are injured, work on your arms.\u00a0 But either way, keep working.\u00a0 Way too many times, especially when it comes to competing, people use the excuse of not being ready, or not being perfectly healthy, as a reason to not compete.\u00a0 To be sure, there may be times where you absolutely have to stop training due to an injury, but I venture to say more times than not, you can overcome an injury\u2026.work around the obstacle\u2026.and continue training.\u00a0 I know this because it is what I have been doing my entire martial arts life.\r\n\r\nSome may say I HAVE to do that because I have to run the business.\u00a0 No, I don\u2019t HAVE to do that.\u00a0 It\u2019s still a choice and a tradeoff I am making.\u00a0 Sure, my motivation is higher to be there because the business will most likely suffer if I\u2019m not there, but there are plenty of business owners who would put that onus all on their employees.\r\n\r\nWe all have plenty of obstacles in our lives: health issues, financial issues, time issues, fear issues, work issues, you name it.\u00a0 You have 2 choices with those obstacles; let them stop you or find a way to work around them.\u00a0 Health issues?\u00a0 We all have them, but most of us can work around them.\u00a0 Financial issues?\u00a0 Look at cutting your costs or, like I have done many times in the past, find a second job.\u00a0 Time issues?\u00a0 Allow yourself a couple hours a week to prioritize yourself.\u00a0 Fear issues?\u00a0 Join our team of people that are here to help you overcome that.\u00a0 Work issues?\u00a0 Start the discussion with your manager about work\/life balance.\u00a0 None of that is easy, I know, because I have had to overcome all of those issues myself.\u00a0 But like I shared on my personal Facebook post last week, it\u2019s amazing how much time we really have if we just put our phones down and focus on optimizing the time we have.\r\n\r\nWhatever your obstacles are, this week start figuring out how to solve them or work around them instead of letting them define you.\u00a0 You will be much better for it.","featured_image":"","featured_image_id":"","featured_article":""},"categories":[4],"class_list":["post-418","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-gb3-expert-jiu-jitsu"],"yoast_head":"\n