In personal growth, it is true that you don't know what you don't know... till you know it.
I train in mixed martial arts. What I have learned inside the cage has so much relevance in my everyday life and personal growth. One of the greatest tools that I developed that comes directly from my MMA experience is You don't know what you don't know... till you know it.
Mixed martial arts is an amazing experience for anyone who is willing to develop their character as well as for personal growth.
When it would come time to spar, I would always find a new partner to fight against. Preferably the one with the most experience. I already knew what i knew, and how well I knew it. That's what practice was for. But what I was looking to find out was what I didn't know... the best way to do this was continuously spar with new partners. By sparring with unique partners, I was constantly faced with individuals that would each come at me using entirely different styles and techniques. This was a great way to expose the gaps in my knowledge. Had I fought the same guy all of the time, sure, maybe he would have beat me but chances are he would always use that same technique now to beat me again. Now, this works well to when developing a skillbelieved I was good at, what I didn'I wanted to find my weakness. And believe me, I found them quite often. Resulting in many evenings valuing the fact that I enjoyed eating vegetables and they could be re-purposed as ice packs.
Week after painstaking week I would focus on where it was this person was getting by me.
Was it my endurance, was my defense limited, maybe it was just my nerves.
I would continue to focus and train on these areas...
until ..
... I got the win. (that's not me...lol)
Once I began to beat this person on a continual basis, I then set my eyes to the next guy. Continually beating the same guy would not prove anything for me except where HE needed to improve and the fact that I kept winning showed me he was not as focused on growing or pushing forward as I were. So, time to move on.
Remember that in personal growth, your only true competition should be against yourself.
Every accomplishment should be the point at which you raise your bar to the next level.
It doesn't matter if it's MMA, sports, business, or just self improvement. This concept is universal.
Growth is motion. Motion pointed in the right direction is the road to success.
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