It’s been an extremely stressful time as I work to get my school open next week. I had a call with my business consultant this week and I told her about how hard it’s been lately. I told her how I’m just thinking about how in six months, I’ll look back and remember how it was today and be glad I went through it.

She told me that while it’ll be nice for my future self to look back and be proud of what I had done, it’s important not to live every day that way. That is, to not live thinking only about how it’ll be in the future. Her words were to “embrace everything.” Embrace how hard it is, how you average less than five hours of sleep, how you sometimes wake up in a panic at 3, etc. To be present now. Because in six months, today’s problems will be solved, but in entrepreneurship, there are always things that come up. And if you’re always looking to get to that place of calm, which doesn’t exist, then you’re constantly chasing a goal that keeps moving.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably thought about quitting jiu-jitsu a few times over the years. It’s hard. It’s got to be one of the hardest “hobbies” to take on, yet for some reason we keep going. When we lose a pickup basketball game, it’s nothing like getting tapped by someone you think should never “lose” to.

And sometimes, we go through months of struggling, where we get tapped a bunch, or can’t retain our guard, or can’t stay mounted on someone. It’s the plateau. I remember a long time ago, I would think, “Once I get to blue belt, it’ll be fine.” Then it became, “Once I get a couple of stripes there, it’ll be fine.” And then it was about purple being the place where I’d find comfort. By then, I realized it’s always going to suck at times. It’s part of the deal.

Whenever I’m going through tough times, whether it’s in jiu-jitsu or something like starting a business, I try to remind myself that the plateau is where we spend most of our lives on.