Flowing with the Go by Elena Stowell

involves taking risks. Coach had called my bluff. It requires effort and challenge to be your best. Discipline is doing what is hard and necessary. What I was doing was work, hard work. Other people believed in me, so I had to believe in myself. Once I could overcome what was holding me back—or just admit to and honor it—then I could know what I needed to do to move forward.
    It’s hard to put ourselves into situations that will challenge our chutzpah. We fear not being good enough. That’s why we have to give ourselves over to trust. We have to believe that we have surrounded ourselves with quality people who care about us and who will help us stay the course toward whatever our measure of personal achievement might be.

24
Leave Your Ego in the Gym Bag
    Welcome to Foster’s Chop Shop— We Dismantle Egos
    T he ego is a terrible taskmaster. It taunts some people into a muscle tee and swagger, and suggests they enter a gym that advertises MMA on its sign. Foster’s is primarily a Jiu-Jitsu gym, but it does offer some classes in MMA. Jiu-Jitsu has become an essential part of the mixed martial artist’s skill set, so people, mostly men, come to the gym thinking they will be the next great cage fighter. Some enter the gym thinking they are already the next great cage fighter. You can always tell who these guys are. They walk into the gym like everyone has been waiting for them to show up. Their chests are either puffed out or maybe slouched over (because the weight of their massive pecs makes it hard to stand up straight). They sign the waiver to participate with nonchalance as if they are telling themselves, “I hope everyone else signed one of these because I am gonna do some pun-ish-ing to-day!” After they whip off their oversized hoodie, they step into the gym in their flashy fight shorts and skull-covered rash guard. Coach has an innate sense of these guys. He will look at them the way you look at a person who has bad BO, but is the only person who doesn’t know it.
    With the restraint of a saint, Coach will give them the skinny on gym protocol and talk to them about lining up when class gets ready to start. Newbies are at the end of the line. These cocky guys always seem insulted that their superior talents are not recognized and they must stand to the left of the lowliest white belts. Usually their eyes are shifting around, and they bounce on their toes trying to seem calm and collected, but we see them flex their biceps and touch their abs as if trying to draw our attention to their impressiveness. If you talk to them, they will usually tell you about their extensive fighting history and the number of hours of TiVo’d UFC they have watched.
    Most, but not all, get gassed out during warmup. Of course to them, warmup is a waste of time because they came here to “punish some peo-ple.” And unlike the humble rest of us, who recognize that our Jiu-Jitsu needs improvement and who are eager to learn new moves, these guys already know everything, so they won’t ask for help. In fact, many will try to tell you what to do because—of course— they already know it all. Maybe it is possible to learn everything from YouTube.
    When it comes time to spar, Coach will not usually let new guys roll. Instead, they must watch or keep time. This is out of respect for their safety. But Coach has a sixth sense for these cocky guys. They tell him they have years of experience already and are raring to go. I love this part. So Coach will relent, as if impressed, and have these guys roll with the upper belts for a while. During these rounds, the cocky guys are trying to muscle their way through their opponents with no technique at all. They are jumping, tumbling, grabbing, and scrambling all out of control. The buzzer goes off, and they pop up: “Hey, no problem. Kicked his ass.” Eyes are going back and forth checking to see who saw them.
    All the while, Coach is