Keep on Keepin' On

Lately I've been going through a crisis of confidence that led me to write Slowly but Surely on the Jiu-Jitsu Fighter blog. In that post I talked about my frustration with my grappling performance, but that is only a small part of the problem. I've been feeling inadequate on a larger scale, and I've questioned why I'm even writing this blog. I am an expert on nothing, and all I have to give are my thoughts.

Then I got an email in response to that post that has given me reason to keep fighting my insecurities. It was from one of our former jiu-jitsu students, and he told me that I had helped him to better understand his failures. By sharing my fears and flaws I helped him come to terms with his own. There is no better gift than to know that something I said has made a difference in someone's life. Now if he would only come back to class and continue the struggle with me.

So I plod on. Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing or why I'm doing it, but that's okay. A lot of people seem to see martial arts as a hobby, a part-time diversion from life. To me, it is life. As long as I still breathe I will pursue this quest, and I will keep sharing my thoughts along the way. My only hope is that I can continue to inspire in the same way others have inspired me.

I'll end with yet another great quote courtesy of Nok Su Kow...

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."

- Maya Angelou