Are you playing it safe?

I have played sport my entire life. I grew up pursuing tennis as my primary focus until I injured my knee and required a full reconstruction. The surgeon told me I should avoid running altogether.

When my knee had recovered I bumped into a friend at my local pub, we hadn’t seen each other since we were both lifesaving together at the 90 mile beach. I will be forever grateful for this chance encounter, because he introduced me to the sport of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ). I began training sporadically and soon enough I was hooked, I couldn’t get enough, both physically and mentally.

The BJJ gym I started out at was 2 hours south east of Melbourne. My focus at the time was was simply improving, self-defence and having fun. After I delved into the BJJ world further I was after a new challenge, which led me down the competition road. My teammates were competing, so I decided why not? What’s the worst that could happen? I’ll give this a shot, after all it would be a great opportunity to test my abilities. Funnily enough my coach at the time, discouraged me from competing. Now I understand that perhaps he assumed I wouldn’t do well and he was trying to protect me from failure. This was nothing but a projection of his own misconceptions and judgement.

Growing up my father would tend to let me try, fail and repeat, until I succeeded. He was never one to try and impart all of the answers, instead encouraging me to problem solve. I decided to dismiss my coach’s advice and compete anyway. Its safe to say my first competition is one I won’t forget. For the very first time, as I walked onto the mat it was as if I had a pole stuck up you know where. As the referee called fight, I froze and was thrown almost immediately and then submitted. I lost the match convincingly but I wasn’t done. The next match I lost again, but I was still not done. However, my third match, I somehow managed to win.

This helped me settle my nerves and I felt a little calmer. As a result I began to feel clear headed and was able to really focus on my game plan. I went on to win the next 4 matches earning a place in the final. Despite losing the final I walked away that day from the biggest Australian competition with a silver medal, having never competed before. To say I felt proud of myself would be an understatement.

This competition was only the beginning. I have combined my passion for travel and BJJ to compete Australia and world wide. I have met some amazing and diverse people along the way, all with their own stories to tell. I wanted to share my BJJ story for two simple reasons:

1. People that care for you will often try to protect you from failure. Whether you take their advice or not is your decision. Don’t let failure define you, because it is how you overcome failure that is the most meaningful. People learn from failure and often see rapid progress. On the other side of that failure, may be one of the best learnings that you could ever imagine.

2. Don’t let one setback deter you from your goal. My goal that day was to use what I had learned to win a match. It would have been easier after that first loss to just walk away. It is harder, yet more meaningful to believe in yourself, deal with setbacks and stay consistent. You will come back to achieve more than you think is possible.

As Thomas Edison once said “I have not failed. I’ve just found ten thousand ways that do not work.”