Community

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training is tough and hard...as it should be.  Let's face it, if it was easy, the outcome would be meaningless and who wants to spend time being involved in meaningless activities.  With that said, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is also about community.  Each of us from varying backgrounds, beliefs and political ideologies...etc, coming together as a community to train.  Therefore when we (student(s)) meet up with others of the same community (school), our individual identity (ego) should take a back seat, so that the Jiu Jitsu community can progress and grow.

Looking over my couple of years of being a member of a specific community, it has been a quick and gratifying progression of learning to keep my ego in check.  For you see, I had one of the worst kind of ego's one could posses.  I had an ego built on low self-esteem.  It's not that I hadn't accomplished many a great things in my own personal life, because I had. However what I had not settled within my own ego, were certain characteristic which held me back in achieving far more than I was capable.  Characteristic such as being staunchly independent, a Mister Know it all, critical of others and just a down right asshole. There is a saying that it often repeated at our community, which forced me to ponder...ME.  It is "Check Your Ego at The Door".  And over time I've come to embrace that one statement.  Now I'm still learning and applying that one statement to every facet of my life. And when we successfully learn our self must be second place, is when we truly become members of a great Jiu Jitsu coummunity.

Being a member of a great Jiu Jitsu community is important but I'll be honest, I can't exactly tell you what makes up a great Jiu Jitsu community.  However I can tell you what the outward fruit of a great Jiu Jitsu community looks like.  It has strong leadership and students without an ego.  It has a community of students who train hard and regularly.  Students who not only interact with each other inside the school but also outside the school. It has a body of students who give of their talents to other students within the Jiu Jitsu community, helping those beneath them by lifting them up.   A community of students who help each other, whether with time, friendship, finances or whatever.  A community of students who helps with the larger community in which they live in.  This is evidence of a great Jiu Jitsu community in which to train at.  And when you find that community, is when you truly begin to develop as a student in not only Jiu Jitsu but in life.

So as your journey progresses, Jiu Jitsu will naturally have a positive impact on your training and life.  If you're willing to lay aside ego, join a community and positively participate in it, the changes will be endless.  Not only will you have a positive impact within your own Jiu Jitsu community but it in other communities of your life as well.  Therefore learn to lay aside self for the Jiu Jitsu community and watch your journey take you to places never imagined!



Peace, Love & Chokes


Will h.

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