If you’re looking for the best My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu quotes you’ve come to the right place. We compiled a list of 65 quotes that best summarise the message of Chris Matakas in My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu. Let these quotes inspire you!
(And check out our page with My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu quotes per category if you only want to read quotes from a certain category, such as funny, life, love, politics, and more).
My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu Quotes
This is the opportunity the fellowship of Jiu Jitsu affords us. To reach our highest potential of self, and then to offer that self to another.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
I have always found that effort is most easily produced when performed for the benefit of something external to ourselves.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
I have seen far by seeing through the lens of Jiu Jitsu. I have exchanged a great deal of physical health for these insights, and these were trades worth making. My efforts were worth the return. I have sacrificed much in the name of this craft. Not for trophies or belts or prestige. For these fall away like dust. I pursued this art so fervently because it was not actually Jiu Jitsu I pursued. It was myself.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Jiu Jitsu provides a place of fellowship that, unfortunately, our society has largely failed to create.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
I can think of no more worthwhile aim than pursuing mastery in this craft while transcending one’s own limitations.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
The secular world often finds its constituents disenfranchised and solitary as it has spent a great deal of time debating the religious community while failing to build a true community of its own.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Properly directed thoughts result in properly directed actions. The only way to appropriately guide our thoughts is to know their foundation, our values.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Mastery lies on an infinite continuum, and as a result we will never reach the end. We can, however, see to it that we are as far along that continuum as our circumstance allows.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
It is in community where we find our very selves.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
We are free to live the life we have imagined, not the life imagined for us.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Every opportunity with another was an opportunity to serve my fellow man. Every moment alone was a chance to grow and become more of who I already was. I instantly felt how great a life could be, and that was only made possible by service toward others.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Freedom from the thinking mind is our underlying goal for most of human activity.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Your progress as a Jiu Jitsu practitioner is a direct reflection of the standards you have for yourself.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
The point of meditating is not to learn to sit quietly in a room. The point is to live that way in the world.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
We must strive to become more daily. We must honestly assess our weaknesses and overcome them. We must work toward the highest possible version of ourselves. This is a worthy use of our time, but it is only when we do so with the ultimate aim of service to our fellow man that we really connect with something greater than ourselves. To contribute to the world in a positive way, this is the gift of life.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
The infinitude of Jiu Jitsu allows for the infinitude of the types of practitioners. There exists a game for each and every one of us which is specifically possible within the confines of our particular skill set.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
It is fellowship, this most fundamental need on our way toward achieving our highest expression of the human experience, which Jiu Jitsu provides.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
we must remember that the end of personal mastery is service to others.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
It is only when we admit our ignorance that we can hope to overcome it.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
It appears, at least from my perspective, that each and every position in Jiu Jitsu regardless of the seeming complexity is really governed by no more than a handful of minimum viable products. Pursue to understand these essentials, and you will see that complexity is a myth perpetuated by lack of understanding, and it is this understanding which is possible for each of us.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
When we honestly take stock of our ability, we are then granted the opportunity to improve our circumstance. Accessing where you stand is the only way to stand somewhere else.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Autopilot is great, and removal of thought is one of the highest ideals of training. But removal of thought in the moment must be preceded by purposeful thought beforehand.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Thoreau and Huxley calmly state what I have spent years trying to articulate, and never found the words for doing so. To read the words of these great men is to read the highest expression of my very self which is inexpressible due to the shortcomings of my particular nature.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
To know our values is to have a foundation on which to build a great life. Our environment and education will play a large part in influencing our formulation of this world view, but is ultimately ourselves that have the final say. We must decide what we value, and then live accordingly. After all, in the eyes of the world we could achieve great success, but if our actions do not coincide with what we ourselves truly deem worthy, we will find no peace.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
In Jiu Jitsu, we often fall into the trap of simply trying a technique “harder, ” rather than recognizing that it is a poorly chosen tool for the task at hand.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Jiu Jitsu is meant to serve us, not the other way around. It is meant to make you more of whatever it is you already are. It is meant to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is meant to bring to conscious attention all that once went unseen. It is meant to make you more loving. It is meant to make you more wise, but less certain. It is meant to make us humble, yet supremely confident. It is meant to remind us of our frailty while simultaneously making us feel invincible.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
The beautiful truth about service is that we are afforded countless opportunities to be its vehicle. Every interaction with another is an opportunity to serve. From simply letting someone into your lane in traffic, to holding a door, to a kind smile. This is all service. I am humbled by this simple truth. We are given the opportunity to express the most meaningful use of our lives every time we interact with another sentient being.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Words make the intangible aspects of human experience communicable, and a single sentence can shatter our world view and assist us in the formulation of a new one.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Imagine a true master of the art, someone with complete skill in every aspect of Jiu Jitsu. This master would not force anything. He would simply allow the roll to take whatever form it does, and in every position would act in the most efficient way based off what the circumstance dictates, and not what he himself prefers.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Jiu Jitsu can be a source of total transparency such as a mirror, but it takes a conscious choice to see what it has to say.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
I believe that which you study is only matched in importance by the sincerity with which you approach it.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
I wanted to get to the most essential aspect of my being, and look around for a while. I wanted to explore what I am in my most basic self. I wanted to chip away at all of the nonsense I have acquired through my twenty-nine years on this earth. I wanted to find truth. Thoreau went to the woods. I went to the mats. Jiu Jitsu has peeled the veil of daily life, and has shown me what lies beyond the curtain. We willingly accept the chains that circumstance forces upon us, and we grow to find comfort in them. We attach various fetters of day-to-day living to our being, and we do so with a smile. We accept these constraints for they come in the way of comfort. We accept conformity for it appears the path of least resistance. We strive toward the middle, and we run from ourselves.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Quotes tell a story. A stringing together of a few words can leave you with an idea that changes the course of your life, and can direct you toward reaching your highest potential as a human. The story they tell is derived from the experience which inspired them, and it is our sharing that experience that allows for the quote to resonate so deeply within our being.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
All these men recognized what they themselves valued, and lived according to these values regardless of their relationship to the values of their community. Each lived according to what brought them happiness and peace rather than commonplace prescriptions of the multitudes.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
By becoming a black belt, you will become whatever it is you wanted to be in the first place, and Jiu Jitsu will have served its aim.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
The best indicator of a man’s philosophy is not what he reads or says, but the way in which he lives his life, the way in which he acts.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Any advanced student will tell you the best way to recover guard is simply not to get your guard passed in the first place.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Jiu Jitsu gives each of us something that no other sport can. We have the opportunity to become truly great regardless of what circumstance fate has handed us. We have complete freedom and responsibility to achieve whatever level of mastery we wish.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Jiu Jitsu has shown me that we are not confined to the lot which we inherit. We are not bound to these fetters eternally. They are temporal. We can transcend them should we sincerely choose to. Sincere effort is in fact the rarest virtue among man.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
When we know our values, we can easily measure whether or not our actions are in accordance with them. Values are the measuring sticks with which we determine the worthiness of our actions. To be better associated with one’s own values is to remove a lot of the needless activities of daily life.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
We seek to understand Jiu Jitsu as a vehicle to understand ourselves. We have different explicit goals, from getting in shape, learning self-defense or competition, but tacitly we all seek mastery of ourselves.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
For the sincere student, it mustn’t be enough to simply understand Jiu Jitsu. We must seek to understand ourselves.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Being part of the whole, as I grow so does that which contains me.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
I believe the real reason we pursue anything in life is not for the thing itself, but for who we become on the way to its accomplishment. We strive to accomplish things in the attempt to mold ourselves. The greatest benefits Jiu Jitsu will have in your life will have nothing to do with Jiu Jitsu. It is this simple understanding that allows me to persist in my study. Even on the rare days when I may not have a burning desire to practice Jiu Jitsu, I am reminded that my practicing Jiu Jitsu is more accurately my practicing to become a better human being. The lessons I learn on the mat will serve me in every area of life– personal development, relationships, business, and the like.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
In my own life, I have always viewed personal mastery as simply a medium through which I become capable of providing more service toward my fellow man.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Thoreau went to the woods. I went to the mats.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
If Jiu Jitsu does not make you a better father, son, mother, daughter, wife or husband, you are missing the point. If Jiu Jitsu does not leave you viewing strangers in a kinder light, you are missing the point. If you are not better equipped to deal with the vicissitudes of life due to your training, then you are not really training.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
The best yardstick for our progress is not other people, but ourselves. Am I better than I was yesterday? This is the only question worth asking. As long as you go to bed at night a better practitioner than the one who woke up that morning, you have succeeded. Your worth should have nothing to do with how your progress stacks up relative to another.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
An arm bar in a vacuum is worthless. It is the realization of the truths which constitute that arm bar that is the real treasure we seek.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
We must not learn to try harder. The key is to learn how not to try in the first place.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Relationships formed through Jiu Jitsu are deeply rooted in respect for one another, and this is often not the case in matters of modern society.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
True mastery, it turns out, is not found in accumulating each and every tool under the sun. True mastery is learning that there are really only a handful of tools, and it is the proper application with correct timing and setting that makes them so useful.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
This philosophy teaches us to leave safe harbor for the rough seas of real-world experience, and to accept that a rough copy out in the world serves us far greater than a masterpiece sitting quietly on our shelves.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
We strive toward the middle, and we run from ourselves.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
We call it training. Not because we are training for Jiu Jitsu. We are training for life.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Life is easier lived when lived for others.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
There is no concrete way to play Jiu Jitsu, and this is why so many different types of people find joy in it.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Life is so unlikely, so rare and beautiful an opportunity it is to live, we must be on constant guard to ensure that our actions are worthy of the life it takes to perform them.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
I firmly believe that life will continually try to teach you the same lesson, with increasing pain, until you heed the call.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Jiu Jitsu forges friendships in a way I’ve never known. Being involved in an art as intimate as this, where bodily connection is a must, the common cultural boundaries of personal space are broken. You will never see more hugs, high fives, and physical expressions of love than on the mats. Ultimately, this proves to be one of the most fulfilling aspects of our pursuit of mastery. Along the way, we learn to love others as we love ourselves.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Have a clear-cut plan on what you wish to improve, and seek opportunities to improve it. The more conscious and honest we can be about our shortcomings, the more strength we will have to improve them. We are going to train hard anyway, we are not going to sweat any more or less. It is simply imperative that the sweat is properly directed.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Through Jiu Jitsu I have developed many of the most meaningful relationships in my life, and if that were the only benefit of my practice, Jiu Jitsu would still be the best endeavor I have ever undertaken.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
In the history of history, there has never been someone with your particular genetic make-up or life experiences. This being the case, we have no reference points with which to compare ourselves, and therefore it is futile to attempt to measure yourself relative to others.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
I believe we must pursue mastery for who we become along the way in its achievement. When we progress in Jiu Jitsu, that newfound experience and wisdom transcends into all areas of our lives. We use Jiu Jitsu as the vehicle for growth, but that growth radiates over all of human activity. Someone who devotes time and energy in learning this skill is learning far more than how to subdue an opponent. The student learns persistence, perseverance, pattern recognition, problem solving, and most importantly, learning how to learn. In the arena of life, these virtues are far more valuable than any guard pass.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
Do not seek victory, for victory in itself will not serve you. Seek to understand what made the victory possible.
— Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu
English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish