Balance and sacrifice – to quit or not to quit?

I believe that the key to happiness is balance in all things. Health/fitness and welfare, work, family and human relationships, and personal goals and dreams are all important. If any of these things are neglected, it is difficult to be satisfied with life. These areas all require an investment in time. Time is a finite resource and must be allocated carefully. There is an opportunity cost involved with devoting time to training, and this must be considered to achieve a fulfilling life. An hour spent training may be well spent on developing the areas on health/fitness and welfare, and personal dreams and goals, but that area has been sacrificed from other areas such as family, work etc. Where do you draw the line?

Professional instructors are in the enviable and unique position of being able to invest in all these areas simultaneously if training with their family and friends, but martial artists able to make a living purely from their passion are few and far between. (Personally while I would love to work in the martial arts full time, I also like maintaining separation between my career and my martial arts.

Lately I have been spending a lot of time training, as I want to make the most of my time in Japan. In a perfect week I train four evenings, three or four lunchtimes and one morning per week. This obviously has an impact on my work and family. Of more concern than the impact on work is the pressure on my family life. My wife is very supportive, but would like me home more often, especially since my four hours of travelling to and from work every day means that I am rarely home. My son does not complain, but misses me. I have been reassessing my routine.

While in Japan, I really want to focus on what I cannot learn in South Australia. In particular, this means traditional jujutsu. I can do judo, MMA, BJJ and karate in Australia. Therefore I am considering taking a break from Purebred (Japanese MMA - Shooto and BJJ). I love these Purebred sessions, as they are very physical and are a great testing arena for techniques learnt elsewhere. Purebred is one of the pioneer clubs of MMA in the world and in particular Japan. There is great camaraderie, and a feel like I finish each session on a high. The closeness to reality in training and ability to mix it with professional fighters leads to great confidence in my own ability. I don’t want to quit, but to be honest I have been attending Purebred less and less often, due to the distance from home and the training times being a bit tough to make. Often I have been skipping Purebred for Hakkoryu, as it is closer, easier training, and I am closer to achieving my next belt.

I promised my son that he could start judo when he turns three. That is happening next week. I would love to train with him and judo would provide more motivation to train as I am much closer to achieving a black belt in judo than in BJJ (I am a brown belt in judo, blue belt in BJJ). Also judo is a very Japanese pursuit and well worth training in Japan. Judo will also give me the workout that I will miss if I quit Purebred. Therefore I think I will swap MMA for judo for a while.

Any advice??