In this month’s newsletters, we focused on the values of love, grit, gratitude, and faith – how it applies in life within each individual and within training in practice. While each value has its own meaning individually, there is even greater value when you look at them altogether.
First, let’s really break it down: what is love? There is no one definition that can really capture what it means to love. It’s different for every person, whether you feel it everyday or not.
When you think about love, it’s important to think about all the ways it’s present. From your loved ones asking if you’ve eaten that day to a stranger on the bus offering you their seat, both are acts of love whether conscious or not. It’s most often apparent in these littlest things.
In practice, we can think about it by fully loving the process of training, both the good and the bad, or the conscious and subconscious. It is not easy to dedicate yourself to improving your jiu jitsu, but it stems from a great love of self and of the practice.
This is when grit comes into play. Like we say, it’s about the 1% better that you gain every time you practice. It’s about looking at the smallest progress and feeling that gratitude, even when it feels like it’s not gaining as fast as you want it.
Let go of the idea that you need to accomplish something in a certain amount of time. There is no time limit to the radical act of loving yourself. There is no amount of time you need to surpass in order to reach your goals in the way you want. It’s about believing in your vision and knowing, wholeheartedly, that you are on your way there.