12 Rules For Jiu-Jitsu
Or life, I guess.
A few years ago, I read a book by the psychologist Jordan Peterson called 12 Rules For Life.
Around that time, a lot of people were mad about Peterson’s political views — a lot of which were and are fairly controversial — but this article isn’t about that. This article isn’t even really about him or his book. This article was actually inspired by an episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, Revisionist History.
This article is about Jiu-Jitsu lessons, life lessons, and how they relate together.
Instead of “12 rules for life” — I can give you rules for life in the world of Jiu-Jitsu. After sitting with my thoughts for a while, I managed to come up with 12 of them.
Luckily, I think a lot of them will help you in normal life too.
1. Tap early — especially in practice.
Injuries happen — both on the mat and in life — but most of the time, they’re our fault and completely avoidable.
When you think carefully about it, most injuries that happen are not “freak accidents”. They have a root cause and usually, the root cause is your own stubbornness, pushing yourself too hard, or some other error of the ego.
