How To Exceed Your Plateaus by Badger Johnson

“You might as well be dead. Seriously, if you always put limits on what you can do, physically or anything else, it'll spread over into the rest of your life. It'll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

~ Bruce Lee

The question is 'how do you exceed your plateaus'? How do you exceed limits? There is a specific method and to know what this method is entails a journey of discovery. To see this journey, the best method is 'to journal' daily. We tend to miss the details, miss the overview, miss the peaks and valleys. You look back and discover where you've been and learn how to predict where you're going.

Now, when I read Guro Dan Inosanto or Bruce Lee's aphorisms, I think in terms of delivery system (to accomplish this), platform (type of training), training method, synergy with diet, rest, periodicity, specificity, I think of tracking the training, journaling, finding trends. I work in things like 'supercompensation of training effect' and tapering (of effort) to accomplish a 'peak performance'.

This can be physical, mental, financial, educational. They all have a delivery system that works, and it must work for you, taking into account your abilities and limitations. By taking baby steps, being consistent, gaining knowledge about the root causes of the system, you can exceed your expectations.

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Please check out Badger Johnson's other essays:

• A Martial Framework by Badger Johnson
• Adding to Arnold's Six Principles of Success
• Badger Johnson - 10 Tips on how to analyze a martial art for effectiveness
• "To be a master is very different from being an expert." by Badger Johnson
• Addendum, Clarification and Expansion of Paul Vunak's Fighting Secrets by Badger Johnson
• Expanded Ways of Attack by Badger Johnson
• "Fifty Important Elements in Martial Arts" by Badger Johnson
• Badger Johnson - Can Trapping Work?
• The Genesis and Development of Zone Theory by Badger Johnson
• A few aspects of self-defense training by Badger Johnson
• Some of the important ten things… by Badger Johnson
• Over-speed Training - Accessing the Subconscious and the Power of Threes
• Coaching, self-coaching, talent, experience, genetics, opportunity, motivation
• Thresholding
• "I'd Like to Teach the World to Dance"
• Some thoughts today
• "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?"
• The Safecracker and the Fighter - the effect of serotonin and dopamine receptors by Badger Johnson
• Beyond Martial Skills by Badger Johnson
• Some of the Major Misconceptions or Fallacies of JKD 
• How Bruce Lee may have improved skill using biofeedback 
• The Art of Fighting Without Fighting   
• Not Martial Trained, But Fighting Fit
• Against One Who Scares Us
• What Bruce Lee Taught Us 
• What is Mobile Kicking? 
• Fighting Fit Part 2 - The Seven Essentials 
• How Bruce Lee Trained His Quick Kill 

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Hope this helps you on your Sojourn of Septillion Steps and Self-Discovery! Exceed your level!!


NOTE:  My sincerest gratitude to Badger Johnson for his kind permission in posting his essay here.

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