Less Comfort and More Suffering

Over the last few months, I have been training and dropping weight for the Victory Grappling Championships, a jiu jitsu tournament that was held on Saturday, April 13, 2019. In the last week, I had to drop a few pounds.

This was easier than it ever has been. A big reason for this was that I was listening to the audio book Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. In his book, he describes a lot of suffering that he goes through, which is a tremendous amount. Until you read or listen to the book, you cannot begin to imagine what he endured. All of it, too, was by choice, and could have ended at a moment’s notice if he wanted it to.

David Goggins went through Hell Week training for the Navy Seals three times. In order to even get the first opportunity of Hell Week, he lost over 100 lbs in 3 months while studying for a difficult entrance exam with practically no study skills (he had cheated his way through most of his schooling). He ran 100 miles on no training the day after an intense power lifting workout during what is known as the San Diego One Day.

He had developed a calloused mind.

There were several times during the last few weeks leading up to the tournament in which I had cravings for a beer, snack. or food that wasn’t on the diet. I would almost laugh out loud at how ridiculous this “suffering” compared to what I was listening to in this book.

All I have to do is wait until the next planned meal. What kind of suffering is that? This is nothing, I thought to myself. It truly was nothing, too, with this frame of mind.

I made weight no problem.

In other news, I dislocated my shoulder within the first minute of the first match and had to forfeit the tournament. It was disappointing, as it initially felt like all that training and cutting was for naught.

Even though I didn’t get to apply all that training the way I wanted to that day, my training didn’t just go away. I’ve still got it, and I’m now at a lower weight. Time to move on to the next challenge. As David Goggins’ says: “There is no finish line.”