 So recently I realized that I lack education and this is not the first time that happened in my life. Actually I remember two specific cases. One of them was when I was still actually just after I finished high school. You may know that I keep repeating myself especially in this channel that for my entire life as much as I remember myself I always wanted to make a difference. I always wanted to inspire people and and to have a positive influence on them and I that always drove me but and that kind of drove me to try out different things early on and I guess now that I think of it I bumped into that factor of lacking education even earlier. I remember in my teenage years when I felt a bit lost and confused I kept reading books and I would try to kind of console people try to you know give them advice and I think that's a phenomena that I notice happens with a lot of people. I think it's a stage. It's where we want to make a difference so bad and we want to kind of live a meaningful life that we and many of us end up giving advice to others when we're not really in a suitable position to do that. Thus the lack of education. We don't really know what we're talking about. We're struggling ourselves but there's I think there's this kind of psychological phenomena that if I will help you and if I will give you an advice which will work that will mean that you know I know my thing or that I my life is meaningful and that will prove that I'm on the right path myself and I don't think that's how it works. During my late teenage years I would have numerous conversations with people and I would try to motivate them etc. which is you know crazy now that you look back at it we were both you know same-aged but I think some of the people were inspired now I had a chance to talk with some of them years later but what struck me at that day was that the people that were inspired by what I said they weren't inspired by something specific I said because I was pushing so hard you know I was really like trying to tell them the truth of the universe you know tell them what what would be best for them and I wasn't kind of pushy in terms of asking them to do what I asked them to do but but I really wanted to give them a useful advice and so I was really kind of thinking these high-level concepts ideas that I write in the book and I was kind of calculating which one would be useful to that person. Years later though I would meet those people and I learned from them that actually what inspired them they would they would tell me like oh man you inspired me so much so so well that day and I was like oh so which advice was it which advice what did I tell you like tell me so I would know what's the you know what's the secret sauce and always pretty much yeah pretty much always they would tell me that what inspired them was not what I said by like some quote or something it was something that I said even without realizing which is something which seemed casual to me or or some of some of the people were just inspired by my passion by my drive versus you know specific advice that I was giving and that kind of struck me and I realized man so all that pushiness doesn't help but the natural things that I said were the things which which I kind of figured out and applied in my life and I didn't even consider that to be advice I was just sharing you know what works for me and and or what I discovered for some hard efforts so it wasn't intentional even I don't even remember seeing that in most cases and that struck me where I realized that if I or that's kind of a hypothesis that if I want to really give something useful to people I have to not be like a fish in the sea and in that regard in that knowledge that it shouldn't be something that I'm trying to push or trying to you know really like make people believe in me but it's if I am ever to help people it's it's either for example just you know living a really inspiring life or it's either through knowledge that that to me is I spend so much time with that knowledge that it's it just becomes evident and and to me doesn't even seem special but it but it's something that is really of my own and when I realized that I kind of that's I think that's what pushed me to at that stage I wanted to become an Aikido instructor and I think that's what pushed me to devote myself to Aikido training even more I decided you know what I will actually I think there was that's where the first stage the first evidence stage came up and that was when I after high school I went to Switzerland for three months to do an intensive Aikido training course basically when I was living in Dojo training every day and I still had that day driven passionate mindset of wanting to help people and after those three months I felt like I gained so much that I for some reason I decided you know I'm ready to give some good stuff to people because I was so inspired I thought that's enough to to be useful to others and so I started to do some sessions and seminars and I think I will you know I might make a separate video expanding on that subject but basically eventually I realized no you know it's I don't really know enough I don't really have a great enough capacity to be able to to give something to those people and that's when I came to the realization I need to completely devote myself to at that moment my Aikido training learn everything as much as I can become so infused with all of it that my knowledge would become quote-unquote casual for myself that I would feel so natural at it and I would know so much that naturally people would benefit from what I know or what I do and in the Aikido regard I think I reached that stage to to big enough degree and that the proof was when I opened my dojo my Aikido dojo from the get-go I had so many members part that because I was just so inspired and passionate and I and I had such great confidence in me and I think that confidence in me was residing because I spent so much time learning and I knew more way more than most of the people even that I knew that I do do Aikido or I could have a one-on-one conversation with a high-level Aikido instructor without a problem so I really felt like I know what I know that gave me confidence I trusted also in my intentions and that passion definitely kind of shining through me and it was it was visible it was tangible and I think people caught on to it and the other side I think the knowledge was also the depth of my knowledge and skill set was also evident to people when I would talk I would give examples and recite history and everything and I wasn't pushing anything I was just naturally at that stage I invested so much into Aikido that I knew so much more than my students and I think they felt it they noticed that they were like wow this guy knows what he's talking about in regards to Aikido and I think that helped me build a tremendous big Aikido community successful and and and have it for long enough funny enough even then eventually after a couple years of teaching all full time I started noticing that I'm kind of running out of material and I think my students started noticing that too that's a whole different subject it's kind of a bit related to how Aikido is structured I believe but years later you might know my story that eventually I started questioning Aikido and I started to feel the limits of my knowledge but the knowledge was not only there the knowledge was not only there because I because I didn't know it but also the way Aikido was structured and the way it was taught it wasn't really teaching anything outside of the curriculum of Aikido and I started to bump into that limitation you know I started to realize shit you know I don't know anything about self-defense I don't know anything about fighting and that's a whole world upon itself and eventually realizing that I want that knowledge I want that skill set and that I cannot offer anything about that to my students or to anyone although I was a martial arts instructor that was one of the reasons I decided to close the dojo and that was the second occasion when I started to reach the limits of my education and I started to get into this phenomena which I'm actually back at right now where I realized and I feel that I do not know enough to do what I want to do so at that second stage I wanted to teach self-defense to people I wanted to make sure they're safe but I had no I didn't have that right the right education also on my youtube channel I was expanding the subject on the martial arts journey as I was closing the dojo I was picking up some new information that I also felt like I don't really know that much especially about MMA or business interviews I was just training you know once or twice per week and that's when I closed the dojo and went to Portland trained for six months intensively and not only training I was always talking with the coaches discussing and and gathering information then I went to Ireland and I gathered quite a significant amount of of expertise and knowledge and you know still I'm very much a beginner at MMA and we're saying it soon but that knowledge combined with my previous knowledge of Aikido traditional arts kind of Aikido philosophy blending it that became kind of a unique thing which allowed me to create some unique videos and valuable videos on youtube or ask questions to people I was talking to which weren't you know the regular questions everyone would ask but they were insightful they were I was digging deeper because I was you know I was kind of I was digging all the time for that information myself and I would reach a threshold which wasn't like a common threshold it wasn't I wasn't digging on the surface and that brought I personally think that brought unique insights and unique conversations to martial arts journey which people appreciated but now as you may know it's been now eight months since I started in the new channel but it's not only about starting the new channel I also decided to change my direction in my life where I'm getting where I'm heading to and I made a statement that I want to create a positive influence outside of martial arts that's why I started the journey of this channel and seeking to create that change and it's been eight months but I released a number of videos and I started to kind of feel I'm I'm I'm developing a certain voice I'm starting to see what's what value I can create but I still kept I kept starting to feel that something is missing something is missing something is missing I'm my goal is big another goal that I have in my mind or inspiration is to create a culture a movement of people inspired become the best possible versions of themselves and to provide value not only for themselves but also for the greater whole for others and and I started to feel like there's something missing there's something missing and the other day that that notion of what what's missing it started to kind of knock onto my door but then the other day I was watching The Last Dance a documentary brilliant one by the way about Michael Jordan and Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls I didn't know that much about it Lithuania my country is a culture of basketball so I definitely knew of Michael Jordan I know my brother was super inspired about him in the day and I knew this and that but I didn't know much and what I learned from that documentary really touched me and I really resonate I really liked the approach of Michael Jordan and to me it became evident and the message was really well delivered through the documentary that he might have been quite talented you know he might have had the right genetics to be a basketball player but that was not enough that was not the secret sauce for him the secret sauce but that he was a maniac at working hard he he he he you know he if you know about him or if you watch that documentary it's so evident that he was working harder than anyone else he was pushing more and it was just his hunger was coffee his hunger was was endless and now it's raining so let's move under a tree so it was evident that Michael Jordan wasn't the best basketball player in the world just because he was genetically gifted and he worked a little bit harder than most of the people but he the secret was for him clearly that he was working harder than anyone else ever you know he was just a maniac at that and if he would lose he would work even harder he wouldn't try to do the same over and over again expecting an eh maybe I'll succeed this time no he'd make sure he would succeed and there was a quote that I loved very much it kind of he said that and it just clicked with me he said I think now that I think of it I think if I remember correctly the the quote was victory requires sacrifice and leadership requires sacrifice and it just made so much sense for me and I realized you know what I've been again for the first time in my life I was taking the wrong approach when I felt a limitation when I felt I'm losing I'm not achieving my my I'm critical losing I'm not achieving my goal I tried to dabble around the same area tried to use the same tools that I have and and kind of push something out of them and I realized that's the same feeling I had those two times in my life that even on the second stage I didn't mention that in particular when I was closing my dojo I also started to feel that my youtube material in the martial arts journey I was kind of started I started to go into circles I was more or less repeating myself saying the same things over and over again and just kind of trying to show different angles but I that was the realization as well and the reason for that was that I my source of knowledge my my depth of knowledge my skill set wasn't deepening anymore I was just kind of dabbling around the same area so I didn't have unique new fresh value to or deep value to offer anymore I already presented what I knew and only after I trained much more I started to be able to present new things more valuable things unique things and again that's that's the same stage in my life again as well and I always kind of I was always kind of drone felt drawn or driven to to by the notion of being the best of the best and I think one of the things which turned me off with martial arts one of the reasons why I kind of started to fade from them there's there's many reasons I keep talking about them but one of them I think is because I realized I don't have that drive or passion for martial arts anymore and that will never make me exceptional in martial arts and and for me in my in my vocabulary you know in my mind is like what's the point of doing then it then doing martial arts if I won't be at the top of the game I just realized I just won't have enough drive to pursue it so I would reach anything exceptional and you know I like presenting it so I like an AMA but I don't have that drive which I had back in the day for a kid over I just those nuts I were going every day training extra before training after the training and and reading books and etc and kind of a little bit like Michael Jordan in his game which was a great episode as well where he decided to play the baseball which you know was kind of out of out of the blue for many people but various individuals said that if he would have continued he would have probably made it to major league but because again of his work ethics the the coaches there told that he was doing quite well but but he was also lacking in some parts and he made sure he worked back his working ethics work his work ethics were incredible and that actually reminds me of of Batman one of my favorite quotes about Batman which actually comes from Christopher Nolan is the director of the Batman Dark Knight trilogy he said Batman doesn't have a superpower per se but you could say that his superpower is super discipline or aka work ethics you know that's the methodology that's the mythology of Batman where he goes nuts and trains hard travels the world learns from the best deepens his knowledge so much for those for those you know story wise seven years and then comes back to become Batman that's what makes him Batman if he would have tried to be Batman without going through that deep education and training he would never have been what he became he wouldn't have the right skill set because his goal was so huge and obviously that's mythology you know that's fiction but but that that message that notion I think it comes from the from our psyche which reminds us that that's kind of the way to go and this is where I am right now I realized that I wanted I wanted to make this happen so bad that I forgot about putting the work in to get there to be able to do that I was kind of expecting that with my already already possessed skill set and knowledge of YouTube of martial arts I always dabbled in psychology and business books and so I have some knowledge there but I'm by far not the best of the best you know I know so little compared to the experts but what's holding me back you know why shouldn't I dive there and do that and that's what I realized and and I did that ready for a little bit of time and I love it it's it's it's hard it's tough it's demanding it's exhausting to you know just go wild and just read books and and watch documentaries and and keep learning about it but but at the same time it's satisfying I feel like that's exactly what I'm missing that's what I need I need to devote myself to education and this is something I haven't said yet on record but this is probably the right time to do that it's already actually a few weeks ago I think I subconsciously I started to feel that that lack in my education and I started to look for solutions and I was recommended a coaching course executive and life coaching course based in London one of the best of the best which is taught by some of the best experts in the world and I applied and now I am a part of it it's going to start from October one it's going to last for eight months so I I want that skill set I want to learn from the best and I want to learn that skill set so I would have some tools which are already established and well developed and recognized and tested by the best of the best to be able to be useful to others to be able to to advise and and to guide people if they need and then to expand my knowledge and also what I I'm what's tempting for me about coaching is that from as far as I know about coaching that whatever you experienced and you know can be adapted and applied to the already existing model of it and you know I have some stuff already in my backpack so this might be an interesting step but I don't think it's gonna end there first of all it's gonna take a while until I will finish it well not for years but you know I have plenty of time on my hands right now to put in the work already nobody's nobody says that I should only learn the curriculum that I'm getting period if I'm gonna do this I want to own this I want to go nuts with it if I want to if I'm gonna be a coach let's make sure I'm gonna be the best possible coach that that is that I'm that there's any chance for me to be and that starts now reading the proper necessary books day on day in and day out you know doing extra training watching very documentaries just just going wild to having an incredible work ethics taking inspiration from such people as Michael Jordan and applying it to other fields so personally I'm passionate and inspired about that and what that means is yeah okay my my my value that I provide right now may become much more limited I do want to focus on my education which means probably I will publish less videos I will put less work on the on on the YouTube thing I already have enough passive income coming from the martial arts journey YouTube channel I might release one or two you know popular videos to make sure I have enough money I do some editing work on the side but you know money is money as long as I have enough that's enough the rest of the time I want to go nuts I want to go wild and become the best possible version of myself learn the hell out of everything and start digging my well of knowledge so I would be able to reach a place where I would not only want to make a difference but I would be capable of making a difference that I would have insights and unique knowledge which is you know accessible to to very few who do the work so I want to do that work so that's what I'm going to do these days