Welcome to Animal Jiu Jitsu…

I DID IT!!!

So I Finally Did It!!! This is a picture of Animal Jiu Jitsu’s very first class! I started with 4 Amazingly cool and soon to be Awesome Jitz peps 🙂 All four of the people that started with me on this Blessing of a day are brand spanking new to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. They are all newbies and I Love it!!! I get clean Jitz slates to work with, which will allow me to mold them into Fundamentally sound Jiu Jitsu Fighters.

It’s been a long long time since I spent time typing away on this fandangled contraption called a computer! Truth be told, I Miss the shiznits out of writing! I have been soooooo busy getting my Fitness/Personal Training/Consulting business rolling that I haven’t been able to sit down and tap into the creative writing side of this crazy life I live 😉 I have yet to put the final touches on my “Low Back Pain” book too! It will take me a total of 2-3 hours to polish that puppy off but I have other online endeavors that require my strict attention, at least for another month or two. I’ll tell ya what though, that book is going to help a LOT of people deal with low back pain and for that I am Truly Pumped!!!

Btw this pic was taken last week and I already have another person signed up for Animal Jiu Jitsu, so that makes a total of 5 peps that I get the Honor of Coaching 🙂 I have 1 more person coming in this week too and I am pretty sure he will sign up, so that will make 6 total!

If you are reading this I just want to say a very special “Thank You!!!” for your time and for joining me on this Crazy Journey called Animal’s life 😉 I am Blessed beyond measure to be able to train and teach something I love! Thanks for being here with me for that!!! Until next time….

Dental work Blows! and Teaching is Awesome!!!

I was under the knife recently…and Yes is Sucked, with a capitol S!!! I have almost no positive memories of my mother but the one thing I do remember about her is how she hated it when people touched her face, including her children. Out of all the nothingness that she taught me, I did learn at a very young age that she, and ultimately me, hated people touching our faces. And yes it’s weird when I am dating a girl and she wants to touch my face, it’s just really really uncomfortable:(

So there I was in this Awesome city called Denver, sitting in a dental surgery chair with a ton! of laughing gas and numbing stuff coursing through my lungs and veins. Regardless of how much stuff they pumped into my body to take my mind off of the fact that people were in my face doing some serious drilling and cutting, I was one extremely pissed off Animal! I had to reach out to my Lil Sis just to get some texting support right before the procedure so I didn’t punch one of the dental surgeons in the face. They were super cool and nice but I still hated the experience!

Now that I got that out of my busted up “online” mouth;) It’s onto some really cool stuff that is coursing through my Fighter/Professor body! I’ve been off of the mat for almost 2 months now and it’s been awesome and tough at the same time. It’s hard to put into words but when you have a tattoo of something you love on your body and you aren’t pursuing said endevour there is a part of you that isn’t syncing up right with the world. That’s where I’ve been. I’ve been working on getting settled into a new city and job so much that I let my Jitz slide, a lot:( This Jiu Jitsu layoff has been a weird mix of refreshing along with a side of feeling weak and lost. I know now that I needed to take a good break but I also know that I suffered for it. Soon I will be on that mat again and the journey shall proceed…

With Jiu Jitsu it’s this weird thing where I hate losing but I know I need to tap in order to get better. So now that I am going to be getting back on the mat soon, and basically rolling as hard as possible, with dudes that are very technical and 10-15 years younger then me, I know there is going to be some ass kicking coming my way;) I don’t tend to tap much and have been injured b/c I wouldn’t submit to a arm or leg lock and that is just stupid, but that is who I am. So fatigue and frustration here I come…

On an Awesome Jiu Jitsu Professor note! I recently started doing Privates with this 19 year old kid. He’s had no Jitz or any sort of Fight training so we are starting with the very basics. It’s totally rad b/c he is like a sponge and soaks up everything I show and tell him! I am muito excited to see how he progresses b/c it seems like he is committed to growing as a Fighter….but as always time will tell:) For now I am way Pumped to be working with him! As someone who has been teaching Fitness and Fighting for more then 10 years I have to tell you how Amazing it feels to be teaching again! I’ve also got a personal training client that I will start training next week. There is something inside of me that feels “right” with the world when I get to see my student(s) learn something, it is one of the most Amazing feelings in the world! So upward and onward I go…

Live Small so you can live BIG…

In the few years I have been on this earth I have been able to cram a TON of living into this crazy thing we call life! I have had many interesting and exciting experiences all over this planet. I am an American by birth and have lived in more then 10 states, and for more then a year and a half in each one. More importantly though, I am blessed to still have lifelong friends in the majority of those states! I have also traveled to over 15 different countries and will be using some of that travel experience to talk about various cultural differences in our society today.

My post today is about my experience in California, more specifically the Japanese culture I experienced while living in San Francisco, California. That amazing city  is saturated (inundated) with the Far East culture and I got a chance to enjoy some of that saturation first hand. Out of the all of the cities in this country, San Francisco has the highest per capita population of Asian American and newly immigrated Asians who came to this country in search of a better life. There are some  pockets of the city that have more Asians living and doing business in them then the rest. These neighborhoods tend to be located in an area known as the “Sunset” district.  This district is pretty much a miniature Asia because almost all of the residents are Asian. That is where I lived and spent most of my time in San Fran, which you can call San Francisco if you have ever lived there. At least that is what I was told by the locals. So I can honestly tell you from first hand experience what it was like being the only “white kid” on the block!

EDIT BELOW:

Today we are going to address a specific Asian culture that I had the honor of living in and around for the majority of my stay in San Fran. One of the things that the Japanese culture excels at is “Minimalism.” I have been to Japan twice and was once engaged to a Japanese girl, who was born and raised in Tokyo, so I have a decent understanding of some basic Japanese cultural traits. I have also studied the life of traditional Martial Artist’s and read many books about the Samurai life and culture. (CONTRADICTS???I am far from an expert on Japanese culture, especially since I am a Texan and have lived most of my life in the Southern part of the US.) But through my experience in this life I have learned to take the Japanese concept of Minimalism and run with it! This is a counter-cultural concept for almost all of the citizens of this country because America has literally built it’s economic strength on consumerism and it’s peoples desire and ability to buy things.

This is EXACTLY what the essence of my post is about. “Live Small so you can live BIG!!!” The falsehood that true happiness is predicated on consumerism is eating away at our country and our present day culture! The biggest and most deadly player in this arena is “debt”. The entire concept of debt is about buying something that you can NOT afford. I still remember getting my first credit card and thinking how great it was b/c I could buy and do things that I couldn’t afford (or at least afford now!) What a lie and false sense of reality.

Yes I am advocating that you have ZERO credit cards and debt, and that you do NOT buy things that you can not afford. But more specifically I want you to evaluate how you are living your life. Is it ok to live a life where you don’t own more then one computer/TV/video game console/etc… Heck is it even possible? The reality is that the things we own tend to eventually own us. I mean how often have you drowned out your day watching a television show instead of really connecting with your partner who is sitting right there in front of you? How often are you consumed with “the playoffs” as opposed to going out for a surprise meal with your family? For us single peps out there…when was the last time you stepped away from the computer/TV and just called one of your friends to see how his or her day was? (the last one is percisely what I am guilty of so please don’t think I am above reproach with this stuff;)

I want you to take a second here and reflect on my original thoughts on Minimalism and the Japanese culture. I have not lived in Japan and am not sure exactly how it works over there. I am not saying that it is the perfect or even ideal culture. But one thing I do know is that people in Japan generally don’t own as much stuff as we do over here, and their houses and cars are far smaller then the average American’s. I also got to see how the Japanese family I almost became a part of was not as affectionate as a typical American family, but they sure did spend a LOT of time together just hanging out. There weren’t nearly as many “things” to distract them from spending quality chill time together.

So living a more minimalistic life is definitely not the norm but I promise you that you will be happier and experience more joy in your life if you are debt free, own less things, and spend more quality time with the people you love! So my challenge to you today is to take a no-BS assessment of what “owns you” and spend some time time thinking through your days in regards as to what you actually do or spend time doing in your free time (tv, family, reading, connecting, etc.) I Pray you don’t get caught up in the cycle of buying things you can’t afford so that you can be even more “distracted” from the people and relationships in your life that truly matter:)

That Fire still burns…

When will a beat dog know he is beat…that is the question I pose today! Where are you at in your journey through this crazy thing we call life? What is your job and/or profession that you are called to…let’s get a little bit more personal…what are you “called” to and what are you doing day to day in order that you pay your bills? How about what are you doing that Inspires you and people around you???

My question about a dog knowing when he is beat is about whether someone should follow their deepest desire to do what they know in their Heart is what they want to do or should they continue on the path of status quo and just exist? I concede that this is a much more complicated question then I give credeence to in these few words but the question is still a valid one…

I am here today to pose that question to any and all readers I have out there…which I realize is only a very select few of my Closest and most Awesome peps:)!!! The point here is that as a Fighter I feel the pull to get back into competition even though, in brutal honesty, I don’t like competition. It Totally Blows!!! That is another story for another time but for now…here’s the skinny…As of late, I have been consumed with finding a safe place to live, getting a job, paying the bills, and being so successful in my job that I don’t have to worry about paying bills. So I have been off of the mat for almost 2 months now. Not training has been one of those things that has been hard but also extremely nice. (and any of you Fighters out there that haven’t taken time off and think I am weak for this, well I just say a nice go @$%$%# yourself!) Reality here is that I am getting this pull inside the deepest part of my soul that wants me to do something Extrodinary and put everything out there and just Fight!!! There are soooooooo many life realities that play into me stepping into that cage again, and 99% of them are all negative! So how do I proceed? How do I deal with this nagging thing inside of me (almost a nagging of my soul) that tells me it’s time to quit being a pussy and do something about it?

I specifically started this Blog so that I could Inspire and Motivate to people to reach beyond themselves and Achieve things that they never even thought possible in their lifetime! I WANT & PRAY that people will step out of their personal defeats and circumstances and do something Amazing with their lives!!! That is why I started writing the Animal Jiu Jitsu Blog!!!

Now when it gets personal I will be honest and tell you that I struggle with the things in my life that test to make sure are one of several things; God’s calling , a selfish ambition, or simply me trying overcome the pain in my life with stupid things like Fighting. My point is that I am and I want you all to be painfully realistic as to why you feel you should be chasing after the dreams you chase. Here’s the reality for me…I am definitely past my prime, I am not in the best shape for someone my age, I have a medical condition that makes my training and Fighting half as good as a “normal” person, my stand-up is horrible, and I am super busy with life obligations such as building a life and paying for it….so where does that leave me? If I was a rational person, had a “normal” upbringing, wasn’t just a little crazy, cared what people thought, and was a smart man (Forrest Gump reference) then I would put up my gi and gloves away for good and say “that’s enough for me” BUT that is EXACTLY where the wildcard lies…hhhhhmmmm…..

Being sick & review of “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell…

Since my move to Denver I have been very sick two times! My body isn’t used to this mountainous climate:( This last week reminds me of my drive here, how I had to stop at a gas station in some small town in Colorado and chill b/c I felt dizzy as all get out and my body was telling me I was going to puke at any moment! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE it here!!! but in all reality for almost my whole life my body has been at sea level. And this Animal’s body is definitely not used to the cold, at least being in it day in and day out. So where does that leave me? I recognize the fact that I am not accustomed to this environment and that it will take me this first winter to get used to the weather here…so I am willing to buck up and accept that fact and work through the doldrums of a Texan in Colorado:( All the while stoking the fire of excitement of next winter when I will be snowboarding, snowshoeing, and climbing these Beautiful & Majestic peaks:)!!!

Now off to the world of literary Beauty:) I just finished “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell and was overall very impressed with it and more specifically how it broke down people’s ability to make “snap decisions” of people and/or situations that they are presented with. It is fascinating how a person is able to make split decisions about people and/or situations based on what Gladwell calls “Thin-slicing”. He defines Thin-slicing as “the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behaviors based on very narrow slices of experience.” Throughout his book he gives examples of individuals in various professions that are able “read” people or situations solely based a quick glance of said scenario. Throughout the book he covers subjects such as how to have a successful marriage, car salesmen, Vietnam vets, war games, facial recognition experts, and many other unique and exciting subjects. He uses various studies and informational resources to back up his analysis and description of how all the various individuals have learned to be “experts” in their chosen field throughout their many years of experience.

One of the things that hit home for me while reading this book was how relevant it is to my years of being a bouncer and doing club/bar security work. I even mentioned this book and it’s findings about Thin-slicing to the general manager of Punch Bowl Social, where I am currently the Head of Security. I explained to him that b/c of all of the various threat scenarios and all of the highly intoxicated and violent individuals I have had to deal with over the years I have developed a keen sense of what is truly dangerous and what is not. For instance, when I see someone walking through the crowd or through the front door in my bar/club I can instantly tell if they are going to be a problem later on in the night. Now if that person is sober, I will wait to see how they act after a couple drinks before I am 100% sure about my decision as to whether they will be violent or not. But this skill that I have obtained over the course of my many years of working in clubs and bars is almost always completely accurate when I see a highly intoxicated individual walking through the crowd and I get that “sense” that he is of bad character. I tell my security staff about how I am able to do this effectively, especially with drunk people, and I always quote Ernest Hemingway to give myself more published credibility. Hemingway said “you know the true measure of a man’s heart when you see him drunk. He becomes who he truly is at that precise moment of intoxication.” I am paraphrasing here b/c I remember reading that quote in college and it has stuck with me to this day. That quote and glimmer of truth is the exact reason I trust no man that is violent or mean to women any form when he is drunk. So now you see how Hemingway and Gladwell are all part of my daily duties as a Professional Bouncer!

To sum up my ranting…I think you will benefit substantially if you pick up a copy of “Blink” and I believe it will give you greater insight into your chosen profession!

Humility & Knowledge of Self = True Strength!!!

I just finished a book I have read many times over the years yet first read when I was 17 years old. This book did and still directly shapes my life as a Fighter, Martial Artist, & Human Being! It is “Karate-Do My Way of Life” by Gichin Funakoshi. Gichin Funakoshi was the founder of modern day Karate, which was originally from his home island of Okinawa. His short yet powerful book is about his personal journey in life as a Martial Artist and how Karate came to be spread through out the known world. This book has totally helped shape me as a Jiu Jitsu, MMA, and Bar Fighter (Bouncer).

The title of this post comes directly from the final paragraph of Funakoshi’s book; “He who is aware of his own weakness will remain master of himself in any situation; only a true weakling is capable of true courage.” This is an extremely Profound and yet confusing statement all the same! This was and honestly is still a perplexing assertion that I have over many years struggled to fully understand.

How can weakness make you strong? One of the most pertinent thoughts that comes to mind when I ask myself this question is an interview I heard with one of the greatest Fighters of all time, George St. Pierre. He was asked if he knows what fear is and if he has ever felt it before or during a fight. His response blew me away! He said as matter of factly as he could that “Of course I am scared! I am in the grips of fear the whole time leading up to my fight but when I step foot in that cage and that bell rings, I let my body and training take over and the fear evaporates” Now that was definitely paraphrased but you get the point;)

I have sat back and meditated for years on how to come to grips with Funakoshi’s statement that only a true weakling will ultimately be courageous. As a recent supplement to my reflections on Funakoshi’s words I have included what GSP says about his fear and how he has harnessed that fear to be one of the greatest Fighters of all time. The result of my many years of dwelling on Master Funakoshi’s words, my many experience in the Fight/Martial Arts world, and GSP’s thoughts have brought me to the conclusion that “Humility & Knowledge of Self = True Strength!!!” I have come to believe that Funakoshi’s words mean that as a Fighter one must access an ability to be Humble no matter how “good” they are or how well they perform. A Fighter must also know his weakness and be aware of that in a Fight, and in life, so as to avoid that area or allow that weakness to be taken advantage of. For example, in life, if you have a problem with alcohol it would not be wise to hang around at bars thereby putting yourself in harms way or even date someone who drinks a lot of alcohol. The same concept applies for a Jiu Jitsu practitioner who knows that he is weakest (in positional strength and in submission defense) while he is in his opponent’s side mount…that Jitz Fighter should at all costs, avoid being put in his weakest position, and play to his Jiu Jitsu strengths so as to defeat his opponent!

Humility comes into play b/c I believe Master Funakoshi means that is ultimately the way to truly know and understand your weakness. Once a Fighter & human being authentically humbles themselves they will be able to know and understand their on their area(s) of weakness…thereby becoming a “Stronger & More Whole Fighter/Human Being”

“Just Show Up” & Success will come…

I just hired a bouncer at the bar I work at. To be specific, I hired him for part-time work to cover all of our regular guys shifts if they are not able to work or need time off. I did this b/c we don’t have another full time opening right now. But he will be working at least once a week and sometimes 3 times a week. Point is, he got hired!

On a related note, this guy is new to the world of Jiu Jitsu and constantly espouses how it has helped him drastically change his life for the good. In all honesty we’ll see if he’s still training in 5 years or totally walked away from it. I Pray he is still on that mat or at least struggling to get back on the mat like yours truely;)

Today’s post is about “Be Present To Succeed” or as I like to say all the time “Just Show Up!!!” Yuri is the name of the bouncer I hired at the bar where I manage the world’s Best Security Team. He got the job b/c he was constantly telling me that he needed a job. I told him over and over again that we weren’t looking for anybody but if he just made himself available when I needed him that he would most likely get hired (of course he would have to do a spectacular job and show me he knows how to bounce!) You see getting to where you want to be or finding success in your choosen profession/life isn’t all that complicated and difficult. I mean you definitely have to put the work in and know what you are doing in said pursuit, but there are a TON of other people out there that want exactly what you want and have the skill set you have! So how do you set yourself apart from them? What makes you different then them? The answer is plain and simple…you are willing to anything and everything to achieve your success but most importantly you are willing to JUST SHOW UP!!!

After I told Yuri, he better be available if I needed him, he made sure to pick up the phone every single time I called and if he absolutely couldn’t answer right away he called me back the second he could! He took my advice and made himself available at a moments notice. And consequently when we were short a guy at 9:00pm on a Friday night, I called him, and sure enough he came to the bar and got his first shift! All I needed him to do was be there when I needed him and he did just that and now he is a member of the best paying Security Crew in all of Denver!

Now Yuri says he has 5 years of nightclub experience, but people can tell you anything about their work history and experience. Not saying that he is lying about his bouncing/nightclub experience, at all! Yuri is a straight up guy BUT Tim Ferriss even talked about this in his book the “4-Hour Work Week.” Tim calls it something like “Creative Truth,” I believe he uses another phrase that I really liked but you get the point. Regardless of how much experience Yuri has, he has shown me that he knows how to handle instructions, a crowd of drunk people, and bar fights, so I am very pleased to have him onboard:)

My challenge to you today is to think of what you are trying to accomplish in life. It could be related to your career, family, or social life but whatever it is I want you to take a long hard look at how much you expect success without being 100% available for that success? For me, I want to write more and be published but more importantly I want to make very very good money writing! So how often am I sitting around and writing? How often am I spending my time sitting around watching a movie or doing stupid time wasting activities instead of typing away on my Mac? The answer for me is easy…I absolutely need to sit down more and write!!! What is it that you need to “Just Show Up” for??? What is it that you are trying to do in life that you feel like you are not achieving or even making headway on? What endeavor can you start “Just Showing Up” for and wether you get what you are after today, you are willing to wake up tomorrow and the next day and the next day until you finally achieve your vision of success?

I hope this helped clarify some things for you…more importantly I hope this Blog will motivate you to go out and do things you never thought you could or would do!!!

As Always I want to say Thank You for reading my Blog and Please click the “Follow” button if you haven’t already!!! Until next time…

Lost the Fire….

For all intensive purpose my move to Denver was a complete success…I have a Great job, have a steady and good income, I have Awesome church and am involved with a Great group of fellow believers in it, I have a Great group of Homie friends here, I live in the most Beautiful and Awesome state in the usa, I have the opportunity to train with some of the Best Fighters in the world…yet I have come to the realization over the last few weeks that I have absolutely lost the “Fire in my Belly” that has been with me for the many many years I’ve been on the mat and/or been trading blows with people. I made myself a promise to be completely honest with everything in my Animal Jiu Jitsu Blog and here it is…straight up and brutally honesty about where I am at with Jiu Jitsu and Fight training in general.

I wish I could just snap my fingers and get that Fire back!!! I recently hired a white belt for security work at my club, who has that Fire and is at the very beginning of his Jiu Jitsu path. It seems all that he wants to do is train…oh how I miss those days!!! In all honesty, part of me wishes I was back on the mat as a newbie white belt who used to train 12-20 times a week! I’ve been rolling for so many years that I barely remember how it felt to have that white belt passion that helped me stay so Alive on the mat…it was always driving me to get better and better each day and it seemed my desire to learn was unquenchable!

Life happens and there are personal family/health/life things we have to spend our time on that periodically take us away from training and granted those things can become intense and sometimes extremely time consuming in our lives, leaving us with little or no time to train. That is different from what I am talking about right now…it is not the lack of time that I am struggling with…it is the straight up lack of desire to push myself to new physical and technical limits on the mat! I miss those old days of being sore and feeling beat up b/c I rolled for several hours the day before. I miss that old familiar “Let’s Roll” attitude I had when I saw a very competent Black Belt tapping people out left and right. I miss the desire I felt in my bones to keep going and going b/c I knew even though I was getting tapped I was getting better and better after each tap.

Life here in Colorado is going Great and my move has been an AMAZING experience and trip! I am Blessed beyond measure! but I struggle with finding that “Fire in my Belly” like I used to have. I will keep ya updated on my progress and I can only hope that my current state allows people to see that regardless of how much someone enjoys something and/or how much they have committed their life to something that brings them happiness, there are dark times in that journey and I am in that “dark training time” right now with my passion for Jiu Jitsu. Let’s see where it takes me…

Intentional Living…

I can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since my last post…that is Totally Totally Lame! I have been in the process of trying to find a place to move consequently my time has been consumed with researching new places, tons of phone calls, visiting places, and finally figuring out what type of people will be the best match for this crazy lifestyle I live! My Blog post is titled “Intentional Living…” for a reason and my current move within the Denver city limits is the motivating factor for the naming of this installment of Animal Jiu Jitsu.

What is Intentional Living? It is living a life with a very specific cause or lifestyle in mind. Living “with Intention” is something most people never do b/c it requires you to live with a very specific agenda in mind and you living out that very specifically agenda throughout every hour of their day. It is so easy to just let life get ahold of your time and drag you through the proverbial mud of chaos and excuses. For instance let’s say you are planning on going to the gym 3 times next week. You start off your Monday with an excuse of being tired from the weekend and you push off the workout until Tuesday. Tuesday comes and goes and you find yourself running errands later then you thought. Henceforth the whole week goes by and you find yourself sitting there on Friday night wondering what happened to the week? Now it’s 10pm and you are ready to go out with some friends but there’s that small voice in your head telling you that you should be going to the gym. You silence that voice quite easily b/c your preexisting life patterns allow you to do so with an almost immediate quick flip of the mental switch. Now it’s Saturday and you blew your goal so maybe, just maybe you can get in 2 days of gym work…who knows b/c that ocean of life has been tossing you around so much lately that you finally give up and put it off until next week! Thus you never get to the gym, but console your anxious mind with a “Next week…I promise next week”.

My Point is what’s the freaking point??? Why in the world set goals if you are never going to complete them? I realize life is hard, extremely difficult at times, but personal resolve and commitment can get you to places you never thought possible if you would just make that one very conscious decision to “Live Intentionally” The gym example is the easiest to use b/c I have been a Personal Trainer for more then 10 years and see and hear about this predicament all the time. But regardless of what your goals are…I want you to know that there is Hope and YOU CAN do anything you put your mind to!!!

This conversation is relevant to my living situation b/c I am currently renting a room in a house and will be moving to another house where I will be renting a room as well. The very specific reason I do this is b/c I took the words of one of my personal Hero’s to Heart. Matt Chandler, along with Dave Ramsey and Adam Corolla are men that guide my life path through sermons and talk radio. During one of Chandler’s sermons he spoke Biblical Truth in a very pragmatic and useful way. The sermon is to long for me to go over in detail but the gist of what he said was that as a Christian single male it is my duty to live in situations that force me to prepare myself for marriage and the lifestyle sacrifice that this entails. I have never been married but I Pray, plan, and hope to find a Beautiful woman of character fairly soon:) Chandler’s synopsis was this: “how can you live by yourself and bask in the selfish lifestyle that breeds, and expect to get married and magically be selfless, and live to honor your spouse in all you do?”  WOW that hit home!!! He then goes on to say that it is imperitive for singles, especially males, to live with others of the same sex in preperation for marriage and all the selflessness that it entails. This is not to be confused with living with someone before you are married! I have done just this and seen and felt first hand the pain and sorrow that creates:( Chandler is simply stating that it is time to stop being a “totally independent individual” and start preparing yourself for a life that “it not just about me”.

So here I am a single male who has enough money to live on my own but I am choosing to be challenged and grow by living in a house full of other single dudes, all with the expressed Intention of “Living Intentionally…”

My challenge to you is that you step out of the comfort zone you have built around yourself and live a challenged and Intentional life, no matter what that may be!

As always a special Thank You for your support of Animal Jiu Jitsu!!! and if you can please join this Blog by clicking the “Follow” I would Greatly appreciate it:)!!! That way you can support this Crazy Animal’s Journey;)

Thank You All!!!

First eBook sent off to Editor & Fitness world get ready…

As a younger man I wrote for my college paper during my senior year at Oklahoma Baptist University. Soon after that I was a paid writer for the Lewisville News, which was a community based newspaper located in Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Ever since then I have owned a personal training studio in Seattle, worked for 2 of the largest internet companies in the US, taught Jiu Jitsu at one of the most prestigious MMA schools in the country as well as a couple other very good schools, I have traveled all over this country and visited 13 other very cool countries, and I have been a bouncer or Cooler/head bouncer in many a bars and clubs across this here country. I have Loved and been Loved by some of the most Beautiful, Sweet, & Awesome Asian women this planet has to offer:) Yes I have lived a very interesting and different life then your average bear!

So here I sit in my favorite coffee Haus, not House, because apparently that isn’t cool enough of a word for this place;) I joke but seriously this spot is Awesome and it is my absolute favorite writing nook…much like J.K. Rowling’s favorite coffee house “The Elephant House,” where she wrote her first Harry Potter book…http://www.elephanthouse.biz/

As I sit here feeling a little under the weather yet brimming with excitement I reflect on what I had just accomplished and how Amazingly easy it was to do it once I made the decision to get it done…I wrote my first book and just sent it off to my Editor:)!!! It is about Low Back Pain and it is a subject I am extremely familiar with since I had a year plus battle with mind numbing low back pain several years ago. Due to that horrendous injury I developed a system Bio-Mechanics and Functional movement that allows people to be free of this epidemic that affects 1 in every 4 Americans. I am soooooooo Pumped about being able to reach out to people via written word and help them:)!!!

Another very cool thing is happening next week along this vain of Inspiration…I will be Personally Training again:) One of my coworkers is getting married and after discussing his goals and physical aspirations he will start training with me next week:) As I have previously stated I have been a Personal Trainer for many many years and am currently working on a Fitness website that will go live in 6-12 months, depending on several extenuating circumstances. But either way this client is the first of many that I will be able to help and work with under the http://www.FitnesswithAnimal.com banner!!! I am beyond excited and am ready to get people Fit again!

So it seems as if all my experience with the written word, training folks, and my years of work in the internet field will all be paying off:) For all the people out there that have believed in me and have supported me along this crazy life journey I want to say a resounding “Thank You!!!”