Argh! The dreaded plateau.
You can run. You can hide. But it will find you, and it has a particular set of skills. Skills that it has acquired over a very long career. Skills that make it a nightmare for people just like you.
And what skills, pray tell?
Illusion
The first is illusion.
It can make you feel its presence when it’s not even there… You’ll think that you aren’t improving, even when you are. And as your motivation decreases, it will finally bear its sharp fangs and unleash its true fury upon you.
It’s horrible.
And many fall to its power.
You MUST not be one of them.
Distraction
The second power is distraction.
It can make you focus on the wrong benchmarks for improvement. Your focus will shift to making every roll a competition. You have to win. And that desire will force you to play a very limited game and ignore many learning opportunities.
And then suddenly you’ll notice that others have improved and you haven’t…
Many people quit at that point.
The jiu-jitsu graveyards is filled with their corpses. And there’s a grave waiting for you as well, if you don’t smash through plateaus like the boss you are.
Solution
Here’s how you do it:
First, you must take responsibility for your own growth. And I suggest you get a notebook. But don’t use it to take notes. Let me repeat that. Don’t use it to take notes. At least not how most people do it.
I’ll explain.
Use it mainly for planning purposes. Write down your training goals. Write down the problems you’ve run into on the mat more than once. Write down techniques that you want to master. Write down your successes. Write down your failures. Write down questions you want to ask higher belts.
The notebook is a tool that will help you maintain focus and a sense of progress at all times.
Use it.