// Richard Hart / Hates_

Grit & Determination

“They realized that to be in power, you didn’t need guns or money or even numbers. You just needed the will to do what the other guy wouldn’t.” – Verbal Kint in the Usual Suspects

Everything in life is about getting up after every fall. If you want to achieve anything in life, you’ve got to be willing to take the punches. A life where we just roll over and accept our fate is no life to live. If that’s the life we choose, then it’s a life spent solely waiting for death. You need to get up every time life knocks you down. Don’t accept the cards you’ve been dealt, because you’re the one dealing them. Get up and fight for what you want.

Are you seeing the results that you want?

Sometimes it’s easy to meander through life thinking we’re doing well, that we’re achieving all the things we set out to do, but are you really? The biggest example of this is at the gym. You see so many people keep coming back, but who aren’t actually going anywhere. You see so many people pumping iron and getting “big”, but really just look fat. We kid ourselves into thinking we’re doing alright, when really need to take a good, long, hard look in the mirror. I’ve done it. I’ve been going to the gym for years, but have I really got anywhere? Not really. I still look fat, flat and like I don’t even go to the gym. Only now have I really made the commitment to reach those goals that I would lie to myself about, as being unreachable. And only now have I broken the cycle of getting big but looking fat.

Are you really seeing the results that you want? Don’t kid yourself, but be honest. Don’t flatter yourself to feel better. Don’t congratulate yourself for a half won battle, because the hardest part has yet to come.

Never Give Up

One of my favourite moments when training, is reaching the point where every single ounce of you is telling you that you’re finished. That you have nothing left. To just give in. And then from nowhere something tells you to get up. To push back. To give it everything you’ve got. It’s such a beautiful moment. Every single session is like a voyage of self discovery. It’s in that moment that I feel complete and I’m faced with my true self.

I’m not finished. I won’t give in.

Want to get better at X? Do more X

Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time contemplating what I need to do to become better in certain areas of my life. Namely work, the gym, BJJ and Japanese. Do the answers lie in books? In videos? In talking about it with people? No, the only way to become better at these things is to do more of the thing itself. Nothing counts more than experience does. Whether that’s time in-front of a keyboard, time spent with a barbell, using the language, or rolling on the mats. The auxiliary actions of reading books and watching videos will propel you onwards faster, but they are in no way a substitute for actually doing.