Patience is a (Martial) Virtue.

I tell my students that a young person's greatest asset is time, and yet they often seem impatient. I remember the feeling well, remember saying in my first dojo's locker room to the assembled group, "I can't wait until I get good." That was 1983. 

Thirty-three years later with a greater appreciation for the passage of time, I know that time will pass all the same, regardless of what I do, and that my task is to use it well, not rush it along. 

I know now that my impatience was an impediment to karate training. I always wanted to be on to the next technique. I thought that, somewhere ahead, there was the move, that decisive crane-technqiue, a la The Karate Kid that, once learned, was unstoppable. It took me ten years to realize that the key was to master a handful of fundamentals instead. 

BJJ, it seems to me, is the kind of art that will reward patience. Which is good. Because I am not old. I'm 46. I am not old. 

I'm in my prime.