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The Hard Truth About Discipline
It’s not what you think it is.
When I was a 19-year-old Jiu-Jitsu blue belt, I had an insane training schedule.
I was living with my parents (who were kindly humoring my Jiu-Jitsu dream since I’d just transferred out of a major university and didn’t have much going for me), taking 14 credits at a local college (a pretty average amount), and I didn’t have very many friends or a girlfriend at the time. I was socially anxious, depressed, and pretty lost.
I wasn’t in the best place in my “life” per se, but I was definitely in the best place to train like a lunatic until I got good at Jiu-Jitsu.
I went to every single Jiu-Jitsu class at my gym. I lifted weights at 5am before school every day, went to school, trained at noon, went back to school, did homework, and then went back at night. I hardly slept and my personal life was a mess, but I made a lot of progress both in BJJ, the gym, and even academically.
I stuck to my routines, I pushed my body past its limits, and I found out that I was capable of a lot more than I had initially thought.
It’s funny because when I look back at that routine, although now I make more money, do Jiu-Jitsu “full-time”, and compete at a much higher level, that period was definitely the hardest of my career.
