"To do anything to a high level, it has to be total obsession." - Connor McGregor

To be an armed professional, or a civilian capable at armed and unarmed self defense, you need to balance the relentless pursuit of certain skills with a well rounded approach and the ability to maintain a balanced life. This is quite honestly a balance I’ve struggled with throughout my life. 

As a young man, my obsession was martial arts. I emulated Musashi, Oyama, Lee, and others. I thought of little besides seeking perfection in art after art. Pursuing one until I would become disillusioned with practicality. organizations, or politics, and then moving on to the next. I earned black belts or the equivalent in four different disciplines and medaled at a national championship.

Then it was success in the Special Forces training pipeline. I swore I would earn my SF tab and Green Beret or die in the process. I trained and studied relentlessly and was able to complete the pipeline without a recycle or failure and earn my place in a team. But even there I became disillusioned, and thought of leaving. Then 9/11 happened and gave the regiment purpose. And until my time was done war became my obsession.

Then it was competitive shooting. Specifically USPSA, or the U.S. Practical Shooting Association. I poured myself for a decade into competition shooting with a single minded obsessiveness. I made master in three divisions and won a major match in the senior category. Only to wake up one day and realize how the toxic culture of USPSA had leached all the joy of the pursuit out of me. 

I still dry fire daily and shoot matches. I still train seriously in several martial arts. But I’m tempering my obsessive nature with other more peaceful pursuits and finding balance in my life. And maybe this progression is a natural one. Musashi was a thug and a ruthless duelist as a young man, but in his later years he was also a poet, sculptor, and painter. But regardless of whether this is a natural progression or not, learning to live a balanced life is vital for self-fulfillment and personal growth. 

There’s yet another aspect of this that I think is important. What are we training for? If you are pursuing a single activity as a competitive athlete and looking to reach the top of a sport, then obsession is necessary. And for as long as that is your pursuit, it must be a single-minded one. 

But if you train shooting or martial arts to defend yourself or others, that sort of obsession isn’t necessary, or even optimal. You need to train a variety of skills in a well rounded fashion, not one skill to the exclusion of everything else. You need to be a skilled generalist rather than a specialized champion. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek mastery. It is a redefinition of it. Mastery for you has the same definition it does for a SWAT officer or special operations soldier. You need a high but attainable level in a variety of skills. 

To put it into perspective, only 0.075 percent of gun owners compete in action shooting matches. Only 5% of adults train in some sort of martial art. And even just working out for fitness is relatively rare, with only 28% of adults working out at the minimum recommended levels for health effects, much less real levels of fitness. So a proficient level of real skill and achievement in all three places you in a very small percentage of the human race and is achievable without unhealthy obsession.

And if your training to protect yourself life and the lives of those you love, you must avoid the trap of obsession. What is the point of protecting a life that you aren’t truly living? Master yourself and your life in a well-rounded way, make that your obsession instead of a single pursuit to the exclusion of all else. If you train for a well-lived life, then the way to self-fulfillment truly is in training.