One year ago I was a bit nervous about how a new baby might slow me down. I ended up having my best year yet. The truth is I didn’t need more time, I needed less distractions. I didn’t need to complete an endless to do list, I needed to focus on the right things.
Looking back, here’s 4 things that helped me move forward with courage in 2024, I hope they can help you keep striving for greatness in 2025!
The Power of Consistency
“A river cuts through rock not because of its power, but its persistence.”
It’s more exciting to do the new thing. But it’s more fruitful to do the same thing over and over.
You get the most social encouragement with ‘new’ announcements– new business, new medal, new method, new baby– but they disappear just as fast. Meanwhile, the same dip occurs in your own motivation and it’s not long before you’re onto the next exciting thing.
I call this ‘shiny object syndrome’.
Clearly, it takes tremendous consistency to become great at anything. So why is it so hard to actually do?
Consistency is tedious, repetitive, boring, and it takes patience, self-discipline, resilience, and the courage to overcome enough mistakes, failures, and judgement to actually pay off.
Not so appetizing, especially when the motivation and social applause of your ‘new thing’ wears off. And yet whether you’re trying to learn martial arts, get in great shape, or build a successful business– there is no recipe for success without it.
Here are 2 ways consistency helped me this year:
Girls Who Fight Classes
Our self defense fundamentals curriculum teaches the exact same 16 lessons over and over. Why? Because you don’t need 1000 fancy techniques to defend yourself effectively, you need to master the fundamentals. This has allowed us to make the same lessons better and better every time.
How could this be more efficient, simpler, more powerful? How should students practice, and with who and for how long? Is there perhaps a better option entirely? Consistently focusing on the fundamentals has helped our students get better faster, and helped us create something truly unique and valuable to women who want focused self defense training and not a general martial arts class.
“I fear not the man who knows 10,000 kicks, but the man who has done one kick 10,000 times” - Bruce Lee
Weight Loss
7 months after having my daughter I was still 15 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight. I started walking twice a day with my dog and baby in stroller (3 birds, one stone, am I right fellow moms?) Not strenuous at all, but I stuck to it every day, and in just 6 weeks I had lost another 10 pounds. A small consistent habit that led to big results! I actually can’t believe how NOT hard it was to do.
How this can apply to you….
You don't need to be everything to everyone. You don’t have to do everything all at once. The elaborate 18-step morning routine, the master workout plan… instead, try to find the few high leverage things you could stay consistent with that would move you toward your goal. After you’ve nailed them, then think about new.
Master the really important stuff, even if it means leaving out the rest.
The Power of Singular Focus
Imagine a martial arts academy that offers a free women’s self defense class once a week, on top of multiple other martial arts and programs, in order to attract new female students to the school. How long would it take them to become the best women’s self defense class in the world? A while.
(99% of them would cancel the class from lack of interest before ever getting close)
Now imagine an academy that only does women’s self defense. Their sole goal is doing that one thing the best they can. How long would it take them to be the best in the world?
Singular focus is why Spotify beats Apple AND Google at music, even though Spotify is a $91.6 billion company, and Apple is $3.86 TRILLION company. Apple and Google does everything. Spotify does music.
Singular focus is why Chick-fil-A makes more money per restaurant than McDonald's and Starbucks combined, with less menu items AND it's closed on Sundays.
Plenty of people have told me:
“women’s self defense can’t be big– just do a 'regular' martial arts class”
“weekend classes never work”
“women only can’t grow, you need co-ed”
Essentially, to do it more like how everyone else does it, how they do it.
But I don’t want Girls Who Fight to be another one. I want it to be the one. And I can't expect other people to see the vision. To get there, it’s up to me to maintain singular focus, and listen only to the people I'm trying to serve to make it better for them. Like these young ladies!
Here’s how this might apply to you.…
How good could you get if you simply refused to stop improving on the same thing, every single day? You would be pretty hard to beat (especially with shiny object syndrome!)
Singular focus is about what you focus on, consistency is about improving that one thing every single day. I believe that together, these two qualities will make it impossible for you to fail.
The Power of Mentorship & Community
This year I invested in a business coach. This person was on my radar for years, but I never moved forward because I was afraid. “Maybe it won’t work for women’s self defense”, “Maybe I’ll waste my money”, maybe it’ll be too much work and I won’t be able to keep up with my new baby!”
I finally did it. It’s helped in two main ways:
Coaching and accountability
I’ve had many coaches in my martial arts journey, but (until now) NONE for how to run a business! (And I'm pretty sure it's much harder to master business than martial arts) After 8 years of trying to figure it out on my own, I finally have a proven path to follow and someone who cares to guide me. That's been huge, practically, mentally, emotionally.
Success Minded Community
Every week I get to be on a call with some of the most successful martial arts schools in the world. I get to learn what they did and do to stay there, and I also get to see for myself that it’s possible to get there. Because I firmly believe:
“If it's humanly possible, you can do it too!”
(I could write a separate blog on how belief applies to self defense– but essentially, without the belief you can succeed, you won't)
Regularly seeing people from all walks of life, markets, ages and styles of martial arts build hugely successful schools around their passion has emboldened my courage and belief in myself, while robbing me of limiting beliefs and excuses.
How this might help you…
Peer pressure is REAL. The good news is we get to choose who we let influence us. I have enjoyed the peer pressure that comes from a mentor and community that want me to thrive and succeed.
Community is actually the biggest reason women state for loving their training at Girls Who Fight. We’re not a competition school, and luckily we don’t attract (or accept) people with big egos who are judgmental, hostile and out only for themselves. We attract women who want to learn in a positive environment, make friends, and enjoy personal development.
Find a supportive community. It’s hard enough to ‘make it’ in anything, so you might as well stack the deck in your favor by surrounding yourself with people who want you to succeed.
The Power of Doing It Alone
The reason it’s so important to find a conducive community is because success and self improvement is a lonely road. Generally, people want you to do well, but not really better than them.
Have you ever tried to change your life for the better, and that one friend says something like “wow, you’ve changed, you used to be [cool/fun/available all the time/a pushover]”? Like your progress in life is a bad thing?
If you decide to quit drinking, chances are your friends that drink will not like it. Crabs in a bucket.
There’s safety in sticking with the group, in blending in, in following the crowd. Naturally, one of our greatest human desires is to belong. But if you want to achieve what no one else has, you can’t do what everyone else does. Doing things differently is required, but the price is alienation, judgement, and exclusion.
“Everyone wants to be exceptional, but nobody wants to be the exception” Alex Hormozi
It hurt's. But it’s not a sign that you’re doing something wrong, it’s a sign to put effort into finding people who are where you want to be and won’t judge you for trying to get there too.
You can belong, but maybe just with a different crowd.
Until then, it's ok to be a lone wolf. You don’t need to get permission or wait to be picked. You don’t need approval and validation.
Don't dim your light. Shine brighter.
Chickens flock together, but the eagle flies alone.
It’s time to start soaring with the eagles girl :)
Girls Who Fight Self Defense Programs
📍Highland Village, Texas
Written by Gemma Sheehan, founder of
Girls Who Fight. Our mission is to help women and girls lead safe and confident lives.
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