Riding the wave

As with all facets of life, after periods of decline or stability comes a period of increase and development.

I often talk about the idea of chasing the plateau’s when it comes to martial arts. A feeling that anybody who has ever learnt anything would no doubt have experienced. Sometimes called the blue belt blues in BJJ or even just the feeling of a lack of progression - the very feeling often leads to people giving up and quitting.

For me, I learnt fairly early on that after every plateau is actually a breakthrough and so by reframing the idea from a plateau being a negative thing, to one that is positive (you’re nearly there keep going!) made a difference in my mental attitude towards progress.

“Never Give up”

It’s kind of like this image that became a bit of a meme that rings so true. Often before the breakthrough, people give up without realising just how close they were to getting to their next checkpoint.

However if we recognise that the plateau is necessary, that work is required, we can ride the wave of peaks and troughs and surf it to our destination…

Yes - ride the wave and surf it. Not jump in the water and fight it. Not stand on the shore and let it lap your feet.

Ride the wave of the highs and lows and use it to get to your destination.

Part of the reason I thought to write some thoughts on this is because right now, I am riding such a wave.

Having woken up at 5:00am this morning due to a little baby having a milk spew, I found myself unable to get back to sleep, the cogs in my head continuously churning with ideas, thoughts and excitement.

After tossing and turning for a period of time trying to fight myself back to sleep, I ultimately decided it would serve me better to just get up, ride the wave and pen the ideas and thoughts down before they elude me to ponder on them some more as time permits.

Just how I was talking about the calm before the storm in my last post, it definitely rung true for me that when it rains it pours as there is a lot happening at the present moment which is exciting, amazing and intriguing.

It’s like when we find something in our life and we wonder - where was this in my life before when I was actually looking for it?

We stop looking and suddenly it appears (how cliche…) or it comes to find us (even better!)

Much like how we take for granted that we are spinning around on this bit of space rock orbiting a giant star which is spinning around in an even bigger galaxy as a part of an infinite amount of galaxies that formulate a universe that may or not have multiple versions numbering to infinity.

No matter how we think or feel about a certain thing, we continue to hurtle along at an immense speed. Although we may sit in the same chair or lie in the same bed in our homes, in the grand scheme of things our relative position compared to a day ago in the cosmos has changed significantly.

We didn’t have to think about it (or try to fight it.. heck that would be futile) the very nature of existence is that it is constantly moving and changing.

There are many ways to approach the highs and lows of life and one such way is to have discipline in riding the lows and gratitude to surf the highs.

As such, I really appreciate the notion that it’s merely a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’.

Since leaving the automotive industry I took a slight detour into politics with the only constant in my life being my family (and even that has changed and grown!) and Martial Arts.

I’ve been so blessed to receive so many opportunities to share my passion and knowledge of the sport and when I started this foray into a different profession I really didn’t know where it would land (I still don’t quite know where the final destination is)

But you know what? That’s actually exciting - to traverse a path and enjoy every step along the way.

I may not know exactly where I’m going, however If i keep walking the same direction I’m going to get there eventually.

And another great thing is - not having an end destination in mind means that I’m in no rush to get there. I know I’ll get there eventually, so why not enjoy the full gambit of experience that life is going to offer me.

If i remove the notion of things being good and bad, I can focus on my actions and the consequences (but that’s a topic for another day)

Are you riding the wave, fighting the water or worse still drowning in it?