I had dinner the other day with some elderly men and women, where the average age was about 85. Two of the men were in the military and one was an amateur fighter and the other was an undefeated prize fighter in his youth. They both loved talking about fighting and training and how much they missed it. I sat and listened and thought about athletic training and working with the fitness industry with Groundwork Promotions. I also thought about my own athletic career and my desire for physical training even now. Sometimes I think I am too old, but then I start going through the photos of our clients and immediately forget my age. I feel power, I feel inspiration, and I feel athletic ambition. Seeing the photos of the athletes and their training makes me forget about being male or female (my gender) and forget about being middle-aged. I forget everything other than training.
Photo of 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu
Everyone at the dinner table was an athlete at one time, and all of them would give anything to have it back. It made me rethink any judgements against myself for being “too old” for anything. I realize how lucky I am to be able to create something like our company or any project that I am working on. Paul and I both want to be athletic into older age, and he is farther ahead than I am. I want to hate him, but instead, I get inspired by him and his training. We have done so much work with people in the fitness industry and I love watching and learning about them. If I could go back and change anything, it would be making fitness part of my career early on. But it’s never too late.
Photo of Paul after training
I created the Self-Creation Process, which we used to found Groundwork Promotions, and it’s about understanding ourselves well enough that we can use it strategically to create ourselves in the image we want. We take what we care about and what we are passionate about and allow that to help us become who we want to be. One of the men I ate with, he was in the Navy and he said, they would always teach him, “Be the best you can be.” That was all he ever thought, that was all he ever wanted. This is all he wants now. This reminded me of Paul and his desire to be “a force of good” with Groundwork. He never abandons that.
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Photo of San Diego Combat Academy
