First, let's set a goal. Maybe your goal is to become a Black Belt in Jiu-Jitsu. Win Worlds, graduate college, or simply to get back to a certain weight class. 

No matter what the goal is, you need to set a plan on how to get to that point. The more detailed the plan, the better. It is important once you set a goal to reverse engineer how to get there. You work backwards until you have monthly steps, weekly steps, daily steps. Even hourly steps that take you to your goal. The plan is how the goal actually happens. 

If your goal is win IBJJF Worlds in Jiu-Jitsu. What belt are you wanting to win at? What age group? Adult or Masters 5? Try to be as specific as possible. This will help you narrow down everything. 

If the goal is Blue Belt Adult and you are currently a Blue Belt. Are we looking at next June is that the goal? If so it is August now, meaning you have 10 months to get ready. Between now and then you will need to be in the best shape of your life. 

10 months means you should focus on training and competing in Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. Training should be 5-6 days a week plus running and lifting. Each athletes version of preparation is different. Some athletes lift and run plus train Jiu-Jitsu. 

But other athletes like Marcelo Garcia only trained Jiu-Jitsu leading up to competition. He is reported of doing 5 hour long training sessions. Making your plan your own is very important. 

At this point talk to your coach. Is your goal reasonable? He or she will hopefully help you decide the training plan to help you reach your goal. 

I enjoyed training but would force myself to lift and run. In order to try to optimize my energy and time. I found that if I train over a hour and half at a time I would over train. So it was important for me to focus on training as much as possible but to train smart as well. 

Planning tournaments to compete in that lead up to the tournament. That will allow you to practice within the same rule set and time. These tournaments the goal is treating them like training. They are not the ultimate goal. Of course I want to win every tournament but the World title is the real goal. 

Conclusion:

Setting lofty goals is very important. Enjoying the ride while you are chasing the goal is even more important. Living the lifestyle you imagined is the goal. We don't know if we will achieve the goal we are chasing. There are countless other athletes that are chasing your same goal. But setting a goal that seems out of reach is how we stretch ourselves to achieve the impossible. 

Set your goal. If your goal is to be a World Champion imagine how the World Champion is living. How is he eating? How is training? Does he party? These are all important questions to ask yourself as you go after the next level in your journey.