When Ronda Rousey reached the peak of her fame, she became interested in starting an acting career which she successfully started. Her acting ambitions were met with certain hesitancy from her boxing coach Edmond Taverdyan who said, “You cannot carry two watermelons in your hands!” After Rousey began to join other ventures, her martial arts career, at least in the UFC, began to take a hit.
How many of us try to carry two watermelons in our hands? A lot of us do. Some of us have a job other than martial arts. Some of us have kids to take care of; heck some of us even have other interests! It can be difficult to juggle all of these things at the same time. Sometimes one of the things we are juggling needs to take priority and we need to set the others down.
This can be a rude awakening, but we can better manage our dueling ambitions if we create a plan even if it is on a weekly basis. Not everything goes as planned but writing our goals down on paper is crucial to our development even if that development is not in the martial arts.
There are fancy planners that you can purchase online and trust me, they are helpful, but don’t let purchasing one of those delay you from planning. Use the notes application on your phone or even a whiteboard to write down your daily or weekly call list and your goals for the day or the week.
Carrying two or more watermelons in your hands can be a challenge but the problem can be amplified if it is a surprise to you. There will still be surprises and things will go off script from time to time, but having an anchor will guide your mental ship.