Immortal Wisdom Weekly #55

Hanging Them Up and Seeing The Impact On Others

May 11, 2024

Ever since I announced my retirement, I’ve been on podcast after podcast speaking about it ad nauseam.

But for those of you who are subscribed to this newsletter, I wanted to give more personal details because I appreciate every single one of you who read this each week.

So I’ve had my retirement planned for a long time.

It just took a lot of courage for me to finally pull the trigger and announce it. Because once I announce it, it’s official.

So I was keeping it in the back of my mind just in case I might change my mind or an opportunity came up.

But that’s over now. I’m officially retired.

I know I’m the guy who says that when a fighter says they’re retired, don’t believe them.

But I don’t have any plans on returning or fighting again.

Of course, I’m going to be a martial artist till the day I die. But now I’m gonna use martial arts for myself to stay in shape and pass those lessons on to others.

Here’s how I think about it.

The average lifespan for a normal person is around 80 years old. I’m a little over halfway there, assuming I meet the average.

The first half of my life was all about myself. Going to school, getting an education, learning martial arts, and being a sponge for everything.

The second half of my life will now be about giving back. Helping others, providing for others, and giving everything that I can.

I believe that will lead to a lot of fulfillment in my life. Especially when I think about what the 80 year old Matt will say to the 43 year old Matt.

What lessons will I tell myself? If I was sitting on my deathbed and reflecting on my life, what would be some things I wish I did?

So when I think about my life from that perspective, the first thing that comes to mind is what more could I have given to others?

That’s why the second half of my life is all about giving back. And this newsletter is a part of that.

Seeing The Impact On Others

Kind of continuing on from the previous section. We all know MMA is an individual sport.

So you need to be selfish. Training camps are all about you. When it’s time to fight, it’s all about you.

As a martial artist, I always felt like there was more to learn. I was always reaching out to get new knowledge, trying to perfect and hone my skills.

When I got to the later stages of my career, there were a lot of people asking me for advice. Saying they looked up to me and wanted me to coach them.

Over time, I started thinking about it. And I realized I’ve done a lot in my life. More than most.

Now I have a lot I can give to others.

I also saw that if I were to step in this direction, I needed to change the perception I have of myself. Maybe even losing a bit of humility.

I’m naturally a humble person and hold myself down. But I know there’s a difference between humility and low self-esteem.

Throughout a lot of my career, I was dealing with low self-esteem but masked it as humility.

It’s an important distinction and a mistake I didn’t realize until later on.

Now I still stay humble, but I have high self-esteem. I recognize I have things to give and have things to say that could be powerful for others.

You could say I finally saw this with my own eyes when I opened my gym.

It was a slow build, but I watched the kids come in and saw how powerful martial arts could be in their lives. I saw how powerful my story could be for them to know. Of course, the same goes for all the other fighters and people who come to train.

Over time, I’ve had so many people thank me for what I’ve built here.

Still staying humble, but my self-esteem is at a much higher level than it was 10 years ago.

Slay Your Inner Demon Weekly

The real game is on the inside.

Every day I wake up and pick a tougher fight. A fight with that bitch ass inner demon inside of me. Every day my purpose is to starve that motherfucker of any little drop.

He never dies though! He’s always there, ready to strike at any moment and take over my mind and take me where I don’t need to go.

So in this weekly series, I’m gonna document challenging shit I’m doing to test myself. I hope this encourages you to do the same and unlock your highest potential!

Finally getting over this sickness. My voice is still messed up, my ears are still fucked up.

Getting back into rhythm and routine after being sick is hard. There was about 2-3 weeks where I was laying around, trying to recover.

So now just getting back in routine is a grind.