Use Your Illusion I

Whether it’s the adage of 10,000hrs or you are what you repeatedly do it seems obvious in plain English that if you continually do something you’re going to get better at it. Let’s take my tried and true hustle of jiu-jitsu.

I’ve read if you’re going to jiu-jitsu once a week you will slowly begin to get behind the curve of learning in the art, two times a week you’re slightly ahead, three you’re moving well ahead. Overall this makes sense to me: if you keep going to class at a steady clip then you’ll get better. If you start as a brand new student and go three times a week you’re going to learn more than a brand new student who only goes one or two. If you’re an advanced student and only go once a week your skill level may be that no one below you will notice you’re slipping. But other advanced students would probably be able to tell; it’s possible a gifted new student who’s attending multiple times a week can tell as well.

I don’t consider myself “good” at jiu-jitsu. In order to counter that I want to be that guy who shows up and the hope, the expectation, is that the closer I get to 10,000hrs the better I’ll be to saying that I am “good”, whatever that means for me. I’ve recently started wondering if I can be doing more with the time I’m coming into the gym. That’s going to require going to a subject matter expert, my head instructor Steve. I think me going to class 3-4x week with a premium focus will get me on the road to “good”. Whatever “good’ means. I’m looking forward to finding out.

Putting a good closing on this, if you want to commit to something start with those 10,000 hrs, start repeatedly doing something and become it, start doing something and get better at it. Let nothing deter you from it. It’s why I started jiu-jitsu. It’s why I started this blog. At the end of it, what’s really going on is you’re looking to improve yourself. That thing you’re doing is just a backdrop to that.