BJJ Executive Podcast - Episode 1 - Balance

The BJJ Executive Podcast, hosted by Dave Kroll, explores the theme of balance in life, profession, business, and Jiu Jitsu. Achieving balance requires deliberate action and effort. It involves finding the space between what you want to do and what you need to do, as well as prioritizing important things in a world that defines importance for you. Balancing a profession requires finding the right combination of skills and passion, while also considering practicalities and income. In Jiu Jitsu, balance is about enduring the challenges of beginners, overcoming plateaus, and prioritizing training. It involves dealing with injuries and recovery, as well as the pleasure of progress. The podcast aims to explore and inspire balance by hearing from successful individuals who have managed these opposing forces. It offers hope and encouragement for those struggling with balance and emphasizes that success in one area is not mutually exclusive with the others. The podcast is for beginners feeling Welcome to the BJJ Executive Podcast. This is Episode 1. I'm your host, Dave Kroll. In this episode, I'd like to talk a little bit about balance. This is the theme of this podcast, encouraging and motivating those who are on the journey of Jiu Jitsu and attempting to balance all things in order to maintain longevity. The equilibrium achieved between opposing forces. And balance in life, it's the constant journey. It's trying to find the space between what you want to do and what you need to do. The space between what you want to do and what you actually get paid to do. It's making time for things that you've deemed important in a world that does all it can to define what's important for you. And to be successful balancing this in life, it requires deliberate action and balance. Balance in your profession. I know that I've struggled here. Finding the balance of your skills and your passion is so much easier said than done. And then couple in the practicalities of the modern world and the fact that you need income. It's growing a career. It's launching a business. It's the ups and downs of the daily grind in a world where outside of sleep, it's where we spend most of our time and devote most of our life's energy. And the balance of a profession to get it right takes extreme effort. And lastly, in my humble opinion, the balance in Jiu Jitsu. It's surviving that painful gauntlet through which all beginners must pass. It's grinding through the plateaus of training that we all go through. It's also encouraging those who won't prioritize their own training. And you still have to find the will to show up yourself again and again and again consistently. You will have injuries inevitably. You will, believe it or not, recover. And you will also find times where that recovery just wasn't quite so. And that's always followed by that ominous downtime. And of course, the steep reentry curve that we all experience when you inevitably have to show back up. But all of this is coupled with the undeniable pleasure when things finally come together and those ancient scripts of Jiu Jitsu seemingly fall into focus. Just to start over again on a journey that never ends, to me, in my humble opinion, this is the balance of Jiu Jitsu in my life. It's life, it's profession, it's your business, it's Jiu Jitsu. These are naturally opposing forces that we have to manage with a strategic and long-term mindset. And the objective of this series is really just that. It's to explore those possibilities. It's to explore what's possible in this balancing act. By listening to those who have been there and done that, and who have played at the top level in those multiple facets, who are winning in life, who have figured out business, and who are on the long-term path of Jiu Jitsu. So what drives that successful business owner to ride the tumultuous waves of entrepreneurship, and then simultaneously putting in the time needed on the mat? What motivates a corporate executive to withstand the institutional pain thresholds of corporate life? Trust me, I've been there, and continue to train consistently, which is the key. And like I said, I know in my own life I've struggled with this balance. I've struggled individually in the individual categories that we just discussed, in life, in profession, in Jiu Jitsu. I've over-prioritized things that shouldn't have been a priority at all. I've hyper-focused on areas for a duration that was actually detrimental to my journey. And to bring them all together, the struggle is more than it seems. And I know there are others that are out there that are feeling the same way, and my goal here is to bring some hope to you, to bring some encouragement to you, and to tell you don't quit. Because as my journey continues, I have learned that success in any one of those areas, it is not mutually exclusive. It takes some calibration sometimes, it takes encouragement from your professor, from your coaches, from your training partners, sometimes from your family, and some devised, well-devised course corrections. And sometimes, believe it or not, contrary to the definition of Jiu Jitsu and the gentle art, it just takes some sheer will and determination to power through. But this balance absolutely can be achieved. And one of the objectives of this series is to help encourage you and show you how. And my aim is to bring this to the surface for all of those struggling with this balance. It's for the absolute beginner who feels the connection to the art, but sees no light at the end of the tunnel. They are in the metaphorical shark tank that we all pass through. This is for you. It is also for the lifelong practitioner who still suffers through the inevitable phases of self-doubt. I know I've been there. This is also for you. And lastly, this is to the Jiu Jitsu community as a whole who have given so much to me, to this art, to Jiu Jitsu, which has been such an accretive and valuable part of my life. This small contribution, this is a disproportionately small contribution to those who have given so much with no expectations in return. I am truly grateful. This is the BJJ Executive Podcast. Thank you for listening. I hope you come back. We have good guests line up. Please stay tuned. Thank you very much.