How being lazy and passive will keep your business alive.
The Gentle Art of Giving a Fuck at the Right Time
So, I learned something unexpectedly cool lately. And I believe it has enormous application beyond its origin (and for once it has nothing to do with business or marketing); I’ve started learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. A martial art, which literally translates into “Gentle Art”. And wow, it is an art - and is gentle. Let me show you what I mean.
When you are sparring in Jiu Jitsu, you are on the ground - grappling. Your goal is to cause your opponent to submit. To do this, you have to
a) not find yourself in a position where you have to submit and
b) gain control of your opponent so much so that they have to submit.
(Submit = tap your opponent to say “you win buddy” because you are either about to pass out from a choke or they’re about to snap your arm off)
This all sounds very violent and fighty - and it is. But when you watch experienced people sparring, it actually seems very calm and coordinated. But this is easier said than done. Let me show you what I mean.
As a beginner, my brain is still trying to distinguish between fight/flight mode and “this is just a game he’s not actually trying to kill me” mode. What this means is that, in a five-minute spar - I am stupidly exerting myself 100% at all times. What I lack in technique I am trying to make up for with sheer strength. And this basically doesn’t work against an experienced opponent. All they have to do is literally nothing - whilst you tire yourself out.
Even in an advantageous position - if I start to lose it - I will try and use strength to maintain it. But the hardest thing to learn is that once you’ve lost even a fraction of that position, the whole position is lost. And all that energy you are exerting trying to keep it is being wasted.
Instead, the art here is to not resist your opponent but to move with them. To conserve your energy for when it’s necessary to use it. It’s knowing what positions you can “chill” in, and when you need to be explosive. This takes experience and cannot be taught.
After these hard sparring sessions I’m always gassed. Frustrated with how unfit I was, I realised that it wasn’t necessarily a case of becoming 20% fitter, but becoming 20% more efficient at exerting the right energy at the right time. This is only possible by learning good technique and being relaxed for 80% of the time.
A simple mantra for a white belt then:
Technique. Relax. Technique. Relax. Technique. Relax.
(And a bonus mantra… “control before submission”)
A small, lean black belt will destroy a powerlifting whatever-belt 100% of the time.
Just this simple truth is enough to cause me to pause and think about what energy is being misplaced or over exerted in other areas of life. Especially business. (I previously wrote about this in a similar theme)
It is not necessary, and in fact a death sentence - to be exerting 100% of your energy over a consistent period of time (especially if it’s driven by fear of loss).
How many great breakthroughs have you made from a position of rest and relaxation?
How many triumphs have you accomplished because you had great technique and execution?
How many failures can you attribute to misplaced energy or grinding without a clear purpose?
How close to burn out have you come because you’ve been relentlessly fighting a fight you had the option of walking away from?
So in summary:
Focus on technique / execution. Brute strength is only an enabler of better technique.
Be like water over a rock. Relax on purpose. Bide your time and only exert your energy when the time is right.
This can apply to your practice from the trench digging all the way up to the strategising.
Alright, that’s it for now. Maybe that was useful. Maybe not. Let me know.
– Charles Burdett.
P.S. Some notes on writing this newsletter (if it’s interesting to you).
I’ve taken to only writing this newsletter by way of procrastination. Only when I’m suitably inspired and the idea motivates me enough to write it down, do I actually write it down. And even then, I’m optimising for getting the general idea across. Not for world-class writing quality or depth of thought. I am not editing these. And merely correcting grammar and spelling so as to not make it a pain to read.
Because I’ve discovered this intentional optimising factor and approach to writing, it’s become a great filter for finding things worth writing about. They have to inherently be things that stop me dead (interest me) and cause me to open up Apple Notes and start typing. (You don’t have to be at a desk to write any more!)
And much like the moral of this post - I’m choosing to only exert a very specific amount of energy on the topics I write about. With a very particular technique and purpose. I am not aimlessly grinding for more subscribers. I am not trying to appease an algorithm. I am writing for me, which may be useful for you.
Thought I’d share that as I found it profoundly useful to know a) why / what I’m writing, b) how I’m writing, c) when I’m writing. Which basically goes:
I write for me (and by proxy, you) about things that move me to write about, in a way that gets to the point, at any time that aligns with my current energy levels and capacity to write.
Maybe if you’re looking to write more, getting clear on the why/what/when/how will take the pressure off. At least it does for me.
This was useful! As someone who did jiu-jitsu I think the analogy is perfect, I also use your technique for my own writing. I think it's a much better approach that grinding down, because it yields quality over quantity. The internet is already saturated with quantity. Quality writing is what actually egts me to subscribe to and read people on substack.