“I wanted to get to the most essential aspect of my being, and look around for a while. I wanted to explore what I am in my most basic self. I wanted to chip away at all of the nonsense I have acquired through my twenty-nine years on this earth. I wanted to find truth. Thoreau went to the woods. I went to the mats. Jiu Jitsu has peeled the veil of daily life, and has shown me what lies beyond the curtain. We willingly accept the chains that circumstance forces upon us, and we grow to find comfort in them. We attach various fetters of day-to-day living to our being, and we do so with a smile. We accept these constraints for they come in the way of comfort. We accept conformity for it appears the path of least resistance. We strive toward the middle, and we run from ourselves.”

“Who you are as a person far outweighs what you do in an athletic arena.”

“There are no trophies for the real victories in life.”

“Jesus was not a carpenter forever.”

“Every interaction with another is an opportunity to serve.”

“Your happiness is in direct proportion to the amount you serve others.”

“Service, it seems, is the only antidote to existential frustration.”

“Life is always easier when lived for others, and living for others is the best way I know to live for yourself.”

“There is no higher calling than the service of your fellow man, and to do so through your own personal mastery of a craft is a gift enjoyed by few.”

“To base your self worth relative to others is to play a losing game. If you are at the bottom, you will be filled with self-loathing. If you are at the top, you will be filled with self-aggrandizement and ego. This will most certainly be one of your greatest obstacles to achieving whatever degree of mastery you are capable.”

“I believe the devil exists in those little, seemingly unnoticeable moments when we choose to value our own insecurities over the service of others.”