Jocko Underground: DON'T ACCEPT IT

Don't Accept it. How to get started in surfing. Get ahold of your time management. Family pet died and the Vet is jaded. Possible infections from Jiu Jitsu. Joining the USA Special Forces but I'm from another country. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jocko Willink?

  This is the Jocko Underground Podcast, number 73, with Echo Charles, sitting across from me, and me, Jocko Willink. So, I was at a Jiu-Jitsu tournament, recently, and I was coaching one of our students, who's a Blue Belch.

• 0:19Jocko Willink?

  And she wrestled in high school, and she has a good background in Jiu-Jitsu. She might be related to me.

• 0:27Jocko Willink?

  So, she, she did, um, started off the day, you know, we had a bunch of people from Victory there, but the tournament started off with Gi, she did Gi, she did great, she, she won, um, gold, in that one, and then in No Gi, which she wrestled in high school, so, what are you thinking? Yeah, you're thinking it's gonna be- That's kind of our, you know, her A- A-O. And anyways, she lost her first, you know, she's going against a really, really good, a bunch of really good girls. I mean, a Blue Belt right now, like, and actually No Gi, so some of these girls are not Blue Belts, some of them maybe Purple Belts or whatever. I don't necessarily know what these, uh, other women were. But, she lost her first match, and so she got done, and, you know, she's got another match coming up, and

• 1:14Jocko Willink?

  before she started her next match, I gave her a little time, you know, because the last thing you do, like, when someone walks off after losing, is immediately just go into critique mode, because that ain't gonna land.

• 1:26Jocko Willink?

  Especially with my daughter. It ain't gonna land at all. So, you know, I just didn't say anything, you know, let her chill, and then when she's getting ready, like, she kind of gave me a look, like, what do you got, you know, what should I do? And I was like, cool, I said, like, permission to speak. And so, I told her, uh, I just said, "Hey, don't accept anything."

• 1:47Jocko Willink?

  And she knew what I was talking about. She knew that in the previous match, which was a tough match, she lost 2-0, but she accepted some things, you know? And she knew what I was talking about. And-

• 2:04Jocko Willink?

  It happens. It happens in jujitsu and it happens in in life. So

• 2:13Jocko Willink?

  and she actually won the match where she didn't accept anything. She she won that next match and all good but so like rolling with Dean if I roll with Dean Lesch who's a world champion guy really good like naturally incredibly gifted jujitsu player if I accept if I go into the onto the mat and I'm like oh you know no big deal if he does this no big deal I'm gonna get murdered. You have to go in when I train with Dean most days there's some days if he's having a horrible day maybe I can accept a little bit but if I if I want to go in there and actually do well I can't accept anything. Think about that I cannot accept anything I can't accept it have to fight everything. And if I accept I get I get murdered. Okay.

• 2:57Jocko Willink?

  If you're going look and if you're going with someone that's better than you this is kind of like what you have to do especially if someone has a tight game right someone has a tight game and you accept you they're gonna they're gonna destroy you.

• 3:10Jocko Willink?

  Here's another thing like I say you should never voluntarily let someone close their guard on you. There's another thing that people get used to accepting right and look is there a time for it yes there is but most of the time you don't accept someone to do that don't let him do it don't accept it.

• 3:27Jocko Willink?

  You have to watch out for that don't accept the takedown that was I had Jeremy Stevens. UFC. It was the first fight where he had moved out here to San Diego to train. And he was fighting Rafael Dos Anios. Okay. And Jeremy Stevens is a freaking awesome guy. And he's from Iowa you know he wrestled in high school. But his jujitsu this is when he first got here this is probably 10 years ago. Something like that is a long it's maybe even more than 10 years it's saying more than 10 years ago. He did not know jujitsu. He was an actual white belt in jujitsu like an actual like white belt in jujitsu and he's fighting Rafael Dos Anios who's a world you know world beater in jujitsu a black belt in jujitsu.

• 4:14Jocko Willink?

  And I and so Jeremy's fight. I think the fight was in Chicago, I think. And we're getting ready. You can't teach someone, we have whatever, five weeks to get him ready. You can't teach someone jiu-jitsu in five weeks. Show him a couple of basic things. You can't teach him jiu-jitsu. You can't, you can't teach someone to survive against a black belt on the mats in five weeks. You cannot do it. So, I was like, listen, you cannot get taken down. Do not accept the takedown at all, ever, against this guy. If you, if he takes you down, you're gonna fucking die.

• 4:55Jocko Willink?

  And he went in there and dude, this guy was trying to take him down. And look, Jeremy had like high school level wrestling, but more important, he had the mindset. He was not going to accept the takedown. It wasn't, he, I said, hey, listen, when, if you start getting taken down, before you hit the ground, you're getting back up, you're getting away from him. You fight like you're gonna die if you go down. And that's what he did. And in the third round, he knocked Dos Anios into freaking next year. This is one of the, it's a, it's a highlight. It's a highlight, all-time highlight of UFC is his uppercut from the depths of hell. And blew Dos Anios consciousness out of the stadium.

• 5:40Jocko Willink?

  In the third round, after fighting off takedowns, just, just would not accept it. So, this happens in real life as well.

• 5:53Jocko Willink?

  We allow things to happen that we should not accept. We should not accept. We allow ourselves to get out of shape. You see people like that? You didn't get out of shape overnight. You accepted it day after day after day after day. We let ourselves get into bad financial situations. We accept it, little bit at a time. I'll just put this on credit. I'll just get another credit card. We, that's what we do.

• 6:20Jocko Willink?

  We accept doing a job or do, or living a life that we really don't want to live.

• 6:28Jocko Willink?

  And what I'm saying is do not accept that.

• 6:31Jocko Willink?

  And I'm not telling you to be rash. I'm not telling you go to work tomorrow and quit your job. I'm not telling you to starve yourself if you're, if you're fat right now or you're out of shape. But I'm telling you, don't accept it. Figure a way out.

• 6:46Jocko Willink?

  It doesn't need to be rash. Let me give you an example. You ever seen the movie Shawshank Redemption? Yes, sir. Okay.

• 6:54Jocko Willink?

  He's not accepting his fate and it take, how long does it take him in that movie to get out of prison? It's like 10 years, right? I think it was like 19. 19 years, bro. He's plotting, but he doesn't accept it. Everyone else in that movie accepts it, accepts it to the point that when they get out, they don't want to be out. That's how much they accept their fate. So that's what I'm saying. Don't, there's things in life where you cannot accept them. And if you accept them a little bit, you lose everything.

• 7:27Jocko Willink?

  Now look. I got, since we're talking to you just a little bit, like Jeff Glover has a way of like over accepting things that works for him, right? Like he, he, you know, he'll let someone, someone's gonna take his back, he'll roll into it and roll right through it, right? And you can do that too. I've done that in my life. It's something that I don't really want to do, but I just go for it. I go all, like when I went to college, I didn't want to go to college. I just went, I just went all in and acted like crazy at college. Just did everything. Just went for it. So that was my way of winning in a situation that I didn't want to be in. I was like, okay, you know what? If I'm in a situation that I don't like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have fun winning at it. I, I went into it. But that's the thing to do.

• 8:13Jocko Willink?

  And as much as I talk, look, and there's, there's obviously a contradiction here. I talk all the time about being flexible and taking the indirect approach.

• 8:22Jocko Willink?

  And that that's the that's the answer, right? Most of the time. But when it comes to your life from a strategic perspectives, strategic perspective, when you look at your whole life. Or you look at certain situations on the jujitsu matter, you look at certain situations at work. From a strategic perspective. Look, you can play the games, you can be flexible, you can take the indirect approach, but make sure that you're not accepting things that you don't truly want to accept.

• 8:54Jocko Willink?

  And find a way out, even if it takes 19 years. Start today.

• 9:01Jocko Willink?

  That's what I got for you.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  That's that's funny. You mentioned Jeff Glover. Yeah, his way because he is. It's technically. A bigger like picture, more like a more profound level of not accepting it. It's more like I'm going to accept it for a greater. Unacceptance, you know? So it's almost like and if you apply it like to outside of jujitsu, it's like, hey, if you see little things creeping in, little things that you don't want creeping in, whether it be complacency or whatever workouts, you know, a lot of times like. You're about to do a workout or something and you're like, oh, shoot. Oh, I gotta finish this thing is important. So I'm going to finish it. And you're like, oh, my God, I had an hour to work out and I only have 45 minutes.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  And then some people like, I'll just do it tomorrow, right? Or even 30 minutes. And they're like, ah, okay, I'll do it tomorrow. They're like, no, no, no, jump in there and you better do everything you can kind of a thing, right? But Jeff Glover is like, okay, I'm not going to work out today, but I'm going to make it. So whatever I do in that 30 minutes is going to be like, oh dang, I'm. At the end of like whatever day that is or whatever week or whatever, you're going to be kind of glad you did this other thing rather than the workout, almost like. My lack of time for the workout kind of provided this thing that I figured out right then and there is going to be even more beneficial.

• 10:12Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, I was gonna say like, maybe you're in a job that you don't like. So then you're like, you know what? I'm going to get so good at this that I can get promoted and not have to do it anymore.

• 10:19Speaker 01

  Exactly right. Or just pay attention to other things.

• 10:21Jocko Willink?

  So by not accepting it, you're like, I don't accept this position I'm in. I'm going to work so hard at it that I get out of it.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  Yeah. And just say, yeah, just that little mind shift or whatever will like make you go in a completely different direction. And it kind of helps your attitude too, man. Like the, your whole college thing and the paperwork story that you always tell or whatever, man, if you can really like embrace that or whatever, you can be, because at the end of doing paperwork or at the end of doing college or whatever, you're kind of good, like you kind of kill college, college is a good thing. So like, if you want to do your garage, I don't know, I'm thinking of my life. So it's like all the garage like needs some clearing out, you know, but I'm not going to do that kind of stuff, you know? Meanwhile, it just gets more and you know, stuff that comes in, I'm like, all right, I'll get to that, put it in the garage. So it's just getting worse and worse.

• 11:07Speaker 01

  If I was like, you know what? No, I'm going to embrace it super hard. I'm going to go hard with the garage. When it's done, you're going to be way happier. See what I'm saying? So it's almost like if I just accept, okay, well, I guess we're not using the garage for our cars anymore. Yeah, exactly. Right. And then boom, not only did you more enjoy something that you didn't before the garage is done. See what I'm saying? Can be your whole life.

• 11:29Jocko Willink?

  I like it.

• 11:30Speaker 01

  I like it.

• 11:31Jocko Willink?

  All right, let's get some questions.

• 11:34Speaker 01

  First question, Jocko Echo, huge fan. Podcast helped me tremendously throughout the last few years. I'm 29 years old and I want to be.

• 11:41Jocko Willink?

  So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground Podcast. So if you want to continue to listen,

• 11:51Jocko Willink?

  go to jacood underground.com and subscribe and we're doing this, we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms. So we are not subject to their control and we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko Podcast, which will remain as is free for all, as long as we can keep it that way. But we, but we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors. And we're doing it so we can give you.

• 12:23Jocko Willink?

  More control, more interaction, more direct connections, better communications with us. And to do that, we are, we're building a website right now where we'll be able to utilize to strengthen this legion of troopers that are in the game with us. So, thank you. It's JacoUnderground.com. It costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you. Just email [email protected] and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized underground.