Chris Matakas > Quotes

“It was my letting go that gave me a better hold.”
― Chris Matakas, #Human: Learning To Live In Modern Times

“The possessions themselves were not the problem, it was my relationship with possessing.”
― Chris Matakas, #Human: Learning To Live In Modern Times

“Your greatest attribute, that which allows you to accomplish most in life and the most treasured aspect of your being will often be the source of your greatest suffering.”
― Chris Matakas, #Human: Learning To Live In Modern Times

“We rise to meet each day because there will come a time when the day will rise without us”
― Chris Matakas

“Deep down I believe each of us is a well-spring of understanding and wisdom, but we simply never allow the space or time for this understanding to rise to the level of conscious thought.”
― Chris Matakas, #Human: Learning To Live In Modern Times

“Anyone can be tough for a season. It takes a special kind of human to rise to life's challenges for a lifetime.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu

“Wearing a black belt does not make you a super hero, and wearing a white belt does not mean you have little to offer as a person. It is what we do in the belts we wear, and not the belts themselves that matter.”
― Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Learning to Live through Jiu Jitsu

“I envision a world in which the vast majority of us are actively striving toward our potential by serving others through mediums we are most passionate.”
― Chris Matakas, #Human: Learning To Live In Modern Times

“If nothing lasts then everything has meaning. If everything dies that means we actually live.”
― Chris Matakas

“On the other side of self-doubt comes a confidence from faith in the process. Even though our destination may be a long way off, each day we rise with a subtle smile as if we have already achieved it, because, when we are truly committed to a task, we already have.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu

“My time in the woods is time spent with a tutor on how to live.”
― Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu

“The greatest effects we have on the world are the ones we can never see.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu

“Everything is relative, including relativity.”
― Chris Matakas, #Human: Learning To Live In Modern Times

“True mastery, it turns out, is not found in accumulating each and every tool under the sun. True mastery is learning that there are really only a handful of tools, and it is the proper application with correct timing and setting that makes them so useful.”
― Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu

“The only permanent aspect of creation is constant impermanence.”
― Chris Matakas, #Human: Learning To Live In Modern Times

“We must not learn to try harder. The key is to learn how not to try in the first place.”
― Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu

“Today's world is flooded with participation trophies. In an attempt to promote equality we have robbed our youth of the most growth-inducing aspect of competition, failing. If you want to be resurrected, you have to first be crucified. Everybody wants to be reborn, but no one is willing to die. Losing, in the context of whatever arena it may be, is a microcosmic death. When we learn from our failures and grow because of them, we are reborn.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu

“Things can be added, but that doesn't mean that anything is missing.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu

“Make no mistake, you earn a white belt. The belt is a physical representation of a commitment to the beginner's mind. It is a vulnerability and a willingness to learn that shines through.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu

“The point of meditating is not to learn to sit quietly in a room. The point is to live that way in the world.”
― Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu

“In the modern world we are surrounded by so much abundance that we cannot see it.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu

“If we do not master ourselves, we will be a slave to ourselves.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu

“Anyone who has ever achieved anything has been a steward of his potential.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu

“Empathy is a breaking down of the false constructs of division between the observer and the observed.”
― Chris Matakas, #Human: Learning To Live In Modern Times

“There is no higher calling than service to your fellow man, and to do so through your own personal mastery of a craft is a gift enjoyed by few. Cultivate this gift, and give it away.”
― Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Learning to Live through Jiu Jitsu

“When you realize you are no longer made of glass, you lose the desire to demonstrate that fragility in others.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu

“The rare opportunity to exist, no matter how brief, is worth the pain left in the wake of its disappearance.”
― Chris Matakas, #Human: Learning To Live In Modern Times

“This is what Jiu Jitsu gives us, and is what so often remains ineffable. Jiu Jitsu frees us and allows us to be what we have always been, but simply never had the medium to express. Jiu Jitsu is the vehicle. Not the Road.”
― Chris Matakas

“Jiu Jitsu forges friendships in a way I’ve never known. Being involved in an art as intimate as this, where bodily connection is a must, the common cultural boundaries of personal space are broken. You will never see more hugs, high fives, and physical expressions of love than on the mats. Ultimately, this proves to be one of the most fulfilling aspects of our pursuit of mastery. Along the way, we learn to love others as we love ourselves.”
― Chris Matakas, My Mastery: Continued Education Through Jiu Jitsu

“After I received my blue belt, I soon recognized that the belts were simply an external representation of an inner experience, and that they mattered little compared to the person I was becoming.”
― Chris Matakas, The Tao of Jiu Jitsu