FRUSTRATION IS YOUR GUIDE

WEEK OF 6/8/26

 

Piggybacking off last week’s entry (“Don’t Let It Get Easier”)–

How do we know if we’re going in the right direction?  To what do we orient ourselves?

If you’ve noticed a theme of exploration, travel, and direction here at the gym, you’re on the right track.  We are “The North Star Academy” because Polaris (the North Star) has been one of humanity’s most important navigational tools throughout known history.  Spanning continents, spanning timelines, spanning civilizations.

The idea here is that we need to find our own “North Stars”: stable, fixed institutions or activities in our lives that provide a reference and orientation point for our own unique, individual journeys.

As it pertains to improvement in combat sports, we want to orient ourselves towards frustration.  Frustration lies on the frontier of the known, safe world of our abilities and the wilderness of new skills and growth.  If we simply steer ourselves towards the safety of what we know and are competent in, we’ll never reach the next stage of our development.

So, let frustration be your guide.  If you’re leaving a training session feeling a little frustrated, then awesome!  You are on the right track.