Master Life & Business through Competition

Professor Matt Blasdel is a World-Class Competitor with a unique understanding of the Martial Art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He succeeds not just in the world of tournaments but in his business and family as well. He states, “When I’m at Jiu-Jitsu, am I getting healthy or am I learning lessons that help me be a better husband? It’s both.”

Through a unique twist of fate, he was in a transitional period, wanting to find a sport that could mentor him “into a higher state of being” and learn how to thrive as a husband, father, and business owner. He was helping out with his family business when Professor Flavio opened GB San Clemente next door to them. “We shared a wall, and shortly after I began my Jiu-Jitsu journey in early 2008, we began to share a lot more than that.”

When asked what drives his ability to excel in multiple areas of his life, he states:

“Values run deep in my family, and from the time I was very little, I was shown that our creative force, especially when paired with courage, has the power to overcome scarcity...

It’s not about maintaining all the fruits of our labor. It’s about focusing on creating and using courage to fuel a strong faith that doing so will generate more than enough for you and likely plenty more for everyone else. Beyond that, if we’re able to find the intersections that exist between success as a parent, spouse, employer, and martial artist, then it’s even easier to see abundance take root.

It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor, and his leisure, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He merely pursues his vision of excellence and leaves it to others to determine whether he is working or playing. To him, he is always doing both.” - Lawrence Pearsall Jacks

I think success comes from blurring the lines of life, as Lawrence Pearsall Jacks describes. When we can build up multiple facets of our lives with the same act, that’s abundance.

When I’m at work, am I loving my family or making money? Both.

When I’m helping my kids gain confidence by playing a game with them, am I being a good dad or filling my bucket to take good energy into the office? Both.

Jiu-Jitsu, because it sustains so much of what we are, has always been an easy place to find this intersection.

The process of preparing for a tournament is uniquely beneficial … At first, it’s like drinking from a firehose. There’s so much to learn and no way to learn it all before we compete. So what do we do?

I limit my focus to improving on three things:

My strengths
My weaknesses
Something new and interesting

Organizing the myriad of stimuli this way allows me to quickly sort through all of it, discarding much of it, and diving deeply into that which will connect to the foundation I’ve already built around strengths, weaknesses, and interests. When I’m able to do this, it’s incredible how clearly progress can manifest. I may not master vast swaths of learning that span several different positions, but I can master individual steps of specific techniques.

It’s certainly no guarantee of victory, but after a tournament, it’s easy to look back and recognize the progress, especially when you can tie specific success or failures from competition to what you studied in preparation.

That lens, and the learning that springs from it, is a recipe for similar learning off the mats.

What am I good at in business? How do I get better at it?
What am I weak at in business? How do I fill that hole?
What might I be really good at as a professional that will level me up in a powerful way? Where will I learn it?

When I began Jiu-Jitsu, I was a good person, but I was woefully under-prepared to shoulder the burdens of entrepreneurship, marriage, and parenting.

Jiu-Jitsu gave me a lens through which to view valuable lessons clearly. When I did, they became increasingly easy to take with me off the mat.

Perhaps that’s when our artistry really begins when we transcend learning chokes and armbars to arrive as stewards of wisdom, and everyone we know benefits from us being better.”

Stay tuned for upcoming CompNet Tournaments in your region.

Blog Written by Mark Mullen - Gracie Barra Black Belt