just a guy trying to live the Dream of having my own school…hope you "Follow" and enjoy!

Archive for January, 2013

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…

January 30, 2013 | Categories: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Entrepreneurship, Health & Fitness, Inspiration, Jiu Jitsu, Low Back Pain, Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

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!!!

January 24, 2013 | Categories: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Entrepreneurship, Health & Fitness, Inspiration, Jiu Jitsu, Low Back Pain, Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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!!!”

January 10, 2013 | Categories: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Entrepreneurship, Health & Fitness, Inspiration, Jiu Jitsu, Low Back Pain, Travel | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2013 will be the BEST Year Eva….

The quote “BEST Eva” is a reference to the movie “Fear”. I quote “4 Eva” instead of “forever” quite a bit so I thought it was fitting for this Blog post since 2013 is going to be my Absolute Best Year Eva!!!

So I finally have my “day job” figured out! We have a Great Team of Security guys that I have the Honor of managing and we do an AWESOME job of keeping people safe and putting a hurting on the bad guys! so everyone is able to have a good, violent free, and safe time at the bar:) I am also bar backing 2 days a week and busting my tail there! Bar backing is more of a bar workout then a job;) So I am pretty much doing the exact opposite of my first very financially successful corporate jobs that I had after I graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University. And Yes I would much rather be busting my tail behind a bar and Protecting people for a living then sitting in a cubicle at Yahoo, that is for darn sure!

So what is in store for me this coming year? Well let’s break it down…I have a stable bar job that pays the bills and allows me time to work on my upcoming Animal empire. I have my very first book, about Low Back Pain, coming out in a month or so, depending on editing issues. I will be starting a Fitness and a Travel Blog within a few months as well as writing for my Animal Jiu Jitsu Blog as often as possible. Once I get all my Blogs set up and in place it will be time to devout a ton of attention to my online personal training site (www.FitnesswithAnimal.com) This puppy is going to ROCK!!! I’ll be able to help so many people get in shape through weekly workout plans, diet tips, and overall encouragement. I will also start taking on personal training clients in Denver:) Now after all of that is said and done I will immediately start working on my Fitness Seminars. More to come on these bad boys in the near future so be ready to see and learn some Awesome Fitness stuff:)

I just finished reading Tim Ferriss’ book “The 4-Hour Workweek” as well as another Malcolm Gladwell book, and I am already a third of the way through “Super Freakonomics.” This was all in the month of December. Point is I read a lot and these books, as well as another 2 selves full of positively mind bending and inspiring books, have  helped me develop a new attitude on work and wealth. I am choosing to build my life around being debt free, developing wealth that is not tied to a job in a specific location, and being able to use my gift of written word to build my Animal Empire. I am in the infancy stages of these Goals but am working daily so that I will be able to fully realize them asap! Animal Jiu Jitsu is still alive and kicking…it’s just taking on a more “free spirited” attitude:)

As always Thank You for your Time & Support of this Crazy Animal’s life! If you have not officially joined my Blog by clicking the “Follow” tab on top of this page please click that bad boy…I would Greatly appreciate it!!! Thanks again and see you all online again soon!

January 3, 2013 | Categories: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Entrepreneurship, Health & Fitness, Inspiration, Jiu Jitsu, Low Back Pain | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments