In this interview, a lot of jewels of self-improvement are discussed. Some of these and their associated thoughts include:

•  Miko is very passionate about life, he is continually having fun. You will learn faster when you are having fun. If you are just trying to learn like you did at school, you will struggle. Life is too short, have fun and smash it.
• Miko participated in a number of different martial arts when he was younger. His cross-training helped his skills develop by allowing him to use the key concepts he learnt in the martial arts to understand the concepts in the other art, and then focus on the specialties of the art. How could you use transferable skills from one hobby or interest to accelerate your learning of another?
• Miko admits he wasn’t always the fun guy he is today, and was a ‘bad boy’. However, he realised that he could change by admitting his faults and working on being a better person. It is not where you currently are that you should focus on, instead focus on where you can go and grow as a person.
• Miko isn’t trying to be a world champion. He is looking to improve 1% per day, he is looking to learn from others, keep working and grinding and doing it all with a smile on his face. A lot of us give up too easily when you get past the beginner parts of learning something new and the real work comes in, we give up because it has become too difficult as we put too much pressure on ourselves. By implementing Miko’s philosophy, and just wanting to improve at least 1% each day, you remove the stress and pressure you put on yourself, have fun and you can focus solely on learning and understanding rather than worrying.
• You can learn from anyone you interact with, lose the ego and be open to all ideas and concepts. In BJJ for example you never improve if you just work your best moves, passes and subs all the time, you need to work on your weaknesses to be awarded more stripes and belts as your Professor needs to see you are well rounded, and you may find that your weakness can be turned into a strength with some tinkering or at least see a new way of looking at things as you will have more reference points about it.
• Help others. If you can’t show someone brand new how to do x, y or z simply and in laymen terms, then you don’t know it well enough yourself.
• You need to be present in whatever you are doing. Put down the phone, switch off thoughts on your dinner or the annoying person at work. You need to learn to focus your attention on the thing at hand. We are bad at trying to multi-task and getting nowhere. Its hard to not pay attention when someone is choking you out. BJJ is a great way to learn how to be in the moment, and present, which can then be transferable to other areas of your life.
• Tapping is not a sign of weakness, it is a way of keeping you safe. Learn to tap quickly and obviously so you keep yourself safe. Rolling a lot is always better than trying to fight through pain and avoid tapping – it is not a sign of you being less of a man. Tap when caught properly, learn from it and go again. Don’t struggle through pain and injury in life. Tap, ask for help, pay a company to fix something, speak to a therapist etc, whatever you need to do to progress. Tap, learn from your mistake, revise your plan and go again until you succeed or get that 1% better.
• You won’t be perfect, you won’t know all the information and have all the skills that you need to progress but no one does when they start, we are all beginning from zero. Don’t think you need to know everything and be great at everything to start. But you need to start to be great.
• Sport and fitness, especially martial arts are a great constant in your life. If everything else has hit the shit, martial arts will help bring you back, you forget all the bad stuff, become present to the moment and the endorphins afterwards will make your day better.