The Worst Excuse

Classes Attended: 2 Regular

There's a couple of schools of thought when it comes to learning/teaching BJJ. One school, often referred to as the old school, thinks the focus of BJJ should (almost exclusively) be self-defense. Meanwhile, the new school is more about the sport of jiu-jitsu and often trains in techniques that would work great in a tournament setting, but would also likely get you your ass handed to you if you tried to use them in a street fight. Both schools of thought have arguments as to why they're the true way of BJJ now and blah blah blah. I believe you should train what you enjoy or else learn to enjoy your misery.
The gym I go to is new school oriented. And it's what I enjoy. I have a hard time seeing myself in a street fight and even if that somehow became the case, there's still a lot of "sport" jiu-jitsu that is completely viable for use in such situations. Also, as much as I hate to say it, most people that go out wanting to start fights these days do so in groups and/or intending to use dirty tactics,* so no matter what techniques I know, I will more than likely at some point end up just trying to protect myself from permanent damage and praying for everything to end. So the idea of training jiu-jitsu for self-defense just isn't that appealing to me.
However, every few weeks or so the gym I go to spends a week focusing solely on self-defense techniques. And for the most part, I think it's a good thing to do. Even if we never intend to get into fights, it's best to have the knowledge and not need it than to need it and not have it. It also serves as a sort of reminder to the roots of BJJ - even if we spend most of our time now training to win tournaments, it's good to see the reason the sport developed in the first place.
That being said, it's virtually impossible for me to be excited about self-defense weeks. Even knowing that much of what we learn can be applied to sport jiu-jitsu, I can't bring myself to want to show up to class so I can learn how to defend myself. And so last week I only made it to a couple classes.
Not being excited to go is the absolute worst reason to not go. Worse than being nervous, worse than being tired, and even worse than that feeling you might have to poop in the middle of class. Yet I let it be my reason not to go as often as I should have last week.
I guess on the plus side I still made it to a couple classes. Just a couple months ago I would've easily skipped the whole week (and then possibly more). But allowing myself to skip classes just because I'm not excited for what's being taught can only lead back to bad habits that I hope to never fall into again.