What's up, guys? So today's episode is a ramble and a Q&A that we did recently. So the

ramble I'm talking about judging your experience based upon someone else's. From there,

we answered a ton of questions that we got from YouTube. So it should be fun. And also,

if you guys aren't, if you don't currently follow on YouTube or if you don't currently like if you

click the little bell that'll send you notifications when we do stuff like the

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live on the YouTube so you guys want to join us live sometimes we typically do it on

Wednesdays or Friday sometimes a little bit later in the evening but with that said

let's jump into the

Ramble and we'll do some Q&A. Hope you guys enjoy it. The other day I got a question and I get

these questions pretty often where people will often sort of send me a message about, and they do

it in a number of different ways, but essentially it boils down to the fact that they compare themselves to others. The most recent question that I got was from a guy named Nelson. Nelson, he's 33 years old. He's getting into jiu-jitsu and he, you know, he's comparing himself to the younger guys in the gym, right? Because the younger guys in the gym, he says, when he started off, they're just surpassing him lot faster. And he says that a lot of times him and some of the, maybe the older guys, are kind of having this situation where they're questioning themselves, right? He says that, you know, he doesn't have any intention of quitting, but at the same time, he's kind of wondering to himself, right? Is it worth it? And so this idea of measuring yourself to others is something that it's human nature. We all do it, right? We all sort of measure our progress based upon others. It's kind of how we know where we stand. And that's okay. It's okay to use it as a measuring stick. But at the same time, you don't want to compare your own experience to someone else's, because your own unique experience is your own. And I was thinking about my own jih Tzu, right? Because, again, my experiences are the things that I can give you guys. I can't tell you. And I never want to come from a place of like, I've got it all figured out because I don't. I hope that I come across more of as a person who is kind of figuring things out and then sharing things with you

guys. But I think about my own experience, right? Like when I first started, and this is, this kind of

goes out to more of the older guys in the, in jih Tjitsu, but obviously for those of you that are,

you know, maybe not as old as 30 or whatever, you can kind of take the lesson from it. But I think about when I first started jihitsu, I was willing to sacrifice everything, right? Like I sacrificed clothing. I didn't buy new clothes. I remember I had jihitsu shirts all the time. That's all I wore. And then in the winter I would wear jeans and the summer I'd wear cargo shorts. I sacrificed the way that I lived because I remember like when I was school, I didn't have a lot of money. And so me and a buddy of mine, we shared a studio apartment. I would sleep on the air mattress. He would sleep on a futon, right? And like, again, I was a young guy in college. Good luck trying to bring your girl home to that. And then I sacrificed, you know, jobs that would have paid more money because the schedule sucked and I'm like, I'm not sacrificing this. I sacrificed so many things. And I brung that up to him because I was like, man, like you're 30 years old. I think he has kids. And, you know, you might have a wife or girlfriend. You're probably not going to want to sacrifice all these things now in your 30s that I was willing to sacrifice that most 20-year-olds in their younger days, they're willing to sacrifice more. But you don't want to judge your experience because, again, they don't have the responsibility. They don't have the things that you have. And they're willing to give up all these things for this one thing that they have. And also for you guys that are a little bit older, if you're judging yourself to the younger crowd,

remember that again, for this one thing that they have. And also for you guys that are a little bit older, if you're judging yourself to the younger crowd,

remember that, again, they are in a newer model vehicle doing this whole journey.

And so, again, it's just, it's not apples and apples, it's different.

But the biggest thing though I think about is the way that I've come to be here, right?

Like, if I was to judge my experience based upon just being competitive in the gym or in competitions,

which is what's happening with Nelson, he's comparing his ability to be effective on the mat,

his ability to compete these sorts of things compared to the younger guys,

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