Jocko Willink often gives out some of the best advice available on a whole host of topics and a lot of it is relevant both on and off the mats, including his latest advice on how to deal with losing in BJJ and in life. The advice comes during a conversation between BJJ black belt Willink and his student and fellow black belt Echo Charles, where the latter is reading out questions asked by followers of the Jocko podcast.
It can be difficult for a lot of people to cope with losing in a BJJ competition, or even in training, and that’s not least of all because Jiu-Jitsu is often touted as the secret to beating depression. Willink’s advice is not unlike the advice you’d hear from most Jiu-Jitsu coaches, as he believes in taking the loss as a learning experience. He believes that you should be able to take a better look at the areas of weakness that your opponent exposed and then use that to determine what you will focus on developing next. Most important of all, Willink advises not to dwell on any losses that you might suffer which, despite being contrary to human nature, is the best way to move on.
He then goes on to explain that his approach to life is similar to this approach to Jiu-Jitsu, in that he uses any “losses” as opportunities to learn from the mistakes that led him to this point. Then, instead of dwelling on the event he will make the relevant changes that he needs to in order to ensure that the same “loss” doesn’t happen again.
The above video is an excerpt from a much longer podcast with much more advice for BJJ and wider life, the full episode can be found here.
