If you're now singing that line, louder and louder ten........
..then you're getting old!
But you're my kind of people!
Of course that line is from the Beastie Boys classic anthem "Sabotage" released in 1994.
One year before I left school at 18
One year before achieving my Black Belt in Wado Ryu Karate
That era, the early to mid 90's we're awesome.
It was a transformative time for me as a young man.
It was the time I learned about self sabotage.
Something I've watched a plethora of people fall victim to over the years since.
In my case, I was self sabotaging by not applying myself in training, by thinking I was already good enough.
It took one guy in a tournament to punch my in the kidneys to make me realise I had work to do.
Oh, he punched me in the kidneys from the front! I was literally lifted off my feet, landing on my arse a few feet backwards!
This, combined with my first (and only) time failing to pass a grading test lead to my instructor Jack Parker utter the lifer changing sentence:
"you need to get strong"
So I spoke to the fittest strongest lads I knew, my high school rowing team, and joined them in their gym sessions.
Training with these lads showed me how I'd been sabotaging myself. I'd been hiding behind my natural abilities, thinking that they were enough. That I didn't have to work hard. That being technically good was enough.
Being good "on paper" was enough.
In fact, I was scared of both hard graft and of failing.
So I avoided both.
This was my self sabotaging action.
That gut punch was my wake up.
Training with the rowing team was the crucible i used to beat that sabotage out of myself. Every one of those lads were stronger and better conditioned than I was, I was more flexible, I could move quicker and run better, but they're strength and dogged work capacity eclipsed anything I brought to the table.
I was the weakest guy in the room.
And it was awesome!
If you want to grow, in any way, shape or form, the single best way to achieve this is to find a room full of people better than you.
A room where there is nowhere to hide.
A room that highlights all your insecurities.
If you're in the right room, then everyone in that room will recognise themselves in you.
They have been where you are and they will help you become what they are.
Your journey, your willingness to dig in and do the work, your willingness to face your weaknesses and strive for progress, this inspires those who've been on that road in the past to continue.
The hardest thing to do though is to walk in that room for the first time.
Regards
Dave Hedges