My First Pro Fight
Let me start with the good news first: This month I signed a contract for my first pro fight! This is very exciting, as I've been trying to find a fight for several months. The Intense Cage Fighting's (ICF) May 16th card is comprised of all female fighters, with both professional and amateur bouts. I will have at least one match that night (possibly two) as part of a four woman pro flyweight tournament to find the ICF's first female champion. Of course, I am now in hard training mode to prepare for this stellar opportunity.
But it actually gets even better.
I found out that I'd been offered a spot on this card the day after I quit my day job. (Yes, I did exactly the thing that one, proverbially, should never do.) And I didn't leave my job with the idea in mind to immerse myself in an intense fight camp-- at the time, I had no idea how long it would be until I could fight again. Rather, I quit so that I could invest more of my time in doing the things that bring me the most joy: fighting and writing. I made up my mind to quit and thought, well, here's to hoping that if I shift my efforts towards the things that really matter the money will follow.
...That part still remains to be seen.
But a number of other great and completely unrelated things happened in quick succession when I quit my job. I was offered a part-time bartending gig out of nowhere. I received another stripe in jiu jtsu. Someone I greatly admire invited me to contribute to their blog. I lost several pounds and hit a new low for body fat percentage. I had the honor to roll with a female jits black belt who is almost exactly my size while she was visiting my gym. I made an Impossible List. There has even been more than a week of sun in Portland-freaking-Oregon!
(Also, lest I seem to be bragging, please take a moment to go back and read my previous post if you have not done so already-- it's practically a laundry list of my failures.)
I don't mention any of this to boast, but instead to point out that several of these are undertakings I couldn't have even entertained if I had not left my primary employment.
Now, I don't mean to get all hippy-dippy "manifesting positivity" on you. I can't just manifest submissions in an MMA match, and I didn't make most of these things happen either. Rather, just like in a fight, I've been making an effort to recognize openings and jump on them as they appear.
This is the skill that black belts in jiu jitsu, business, politics, and every field have that sets them apart: the ability to identify and capitalize on a moment of opportunity.
Honing that skill is just one of many things I plan to spend my new-found freedom (and pro fight camp) working on.