Motivation is what you need to reach your goals. You can get your motivation from various sources, however, in most cases it will be unlasting unless a certain success or the chosen goal will be within your grasp anytime soon.

Especially at the beginning of a BJJ career there is oftentimes a lot of motivation, which manifests in high training commitment, increased injury risk and a good deal of online shopping.

Upon request for his goal the trainee often says, he wants to improve as quickly as possible.
After a couple of weeks and initial achievements all too often disillusion follows. Over and over little mistakes slip into even seemingly simple motion sequences or your considerably smaller and weaker training partner still overpowers you constantly despite your high training commitment.

Many times your own ego will pipe up telling you, it’s surely not due to your lack of talent or your scarce motivation or your deficient commitment, but other circumstances that cause the frequent failures.

At this point, unfortunately, many newbies throw in their towel or (in the not so bad case) change their team or their school.
Jiu-jitsu is an extremely complex sport with many technical but also physical aspects, which are to be discovered and to be trained.
Robson Mouras expressed this beautifully when he said: “Jiu-jitsu has no end!”
Because of jiu-jitsu’s high complexity and to counteract the development of frustration and demotivation it’s very important to deal with your own motivation and especially with your own goals within reason.

This holds true for the sportsman, who in jiu-jitsu seeks a balance to his work life, as well as for the athlete-to-be.

The chosen goals should always be clearly defined, feasible, and which is very important, they should be achievable by your own efforts over a short or longer period of time.
Frequently named goals like ‘just getting better’ or ‘getting the black belt’ are impalpable and not achievable by your own doing and therefore rather inadequate.
Some examples for verifiable goals are deciding to do a certain minimum of training units or attaining an improvement in a certain technique of jiu-jitsu within a fixed period of time.

It is highly recommended to let your coach know your set goals so he can render every possible assistance or, even better, work with you on their realization.