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

• Rafael Jr mentioned how his father encouraged his interest in music and martial arts as a youngster. His father helped shape him into the man he is today. Imagine what you can do with your own children? Your actions and your words shape them, their beliefs, attitudes and views of the world. Encourage them, promote music, sport, build them up, rather than hate, jealousy or greed. You have an amazing change to become a person that not only makes a mark on the world yourself but will also help build passionate, and virtuous leaders of the future.
• Everyone has something that is their calling. If you didn’t have to worry about money, what would you do with your days? What inspires and motivates you to jump out of bed to do? That’s your calling, your passions and figure out how you can dedicate your life to do that, and it will lead to a fulfilling life.
• You need to be all in. Find your passion and go for. Pick the path you want to walk in life and go for it. However, remember and look to the future. Build procedures in your life so you can be secure for the future and support those who need it. You should be insanely focused and motivated on your why, but the how you will do it is just as important.
• To be a good teacher, you need to understand your own why. To fully understand and teach a move etc, you need to understand your own motivations for why it works for you to teach it to others.
• What is your story? All the greats in places have a story of grit, determination, exhuastion, work and fear. The tru path to greatness isn’t easy, with twists, turns and hard moments, plenty of times that will make you question your true desire for it. If you want it, it’ll be hard, but the only thing that will stop you is you. Start writing your own story, don’t let someone write one for you.
• Within difficulty lies opportunity. Be grateful for everything you have and not sad for what you haven’t. Life can be difficult, but it showcases the joys you have available to you. Show gratitude for those in your life, and the benefits you have now. Stop always chasing for more and appreciate what you have now.
• One of the main benefits of martial arts, is the connection that it creates between you and the sport, between you and your coach, between you and your training partners. Martial arts not only teaches you life long skills such as self-defense, it also teaches you self-development, confidence and resilience and as an added bonus life-long, strong friendships with people with similar interests. I have made many and become a happier, healthier and mentally more sound person from martial arts, imagine what you could do. Martial arts empours you, so you can empower others.
• Be open to anything and everything. You never know what a different training method or protocol may do for your understanding, physical development, mental understanding, or longevity in the sport. You can use that same life rule in your work, relationships and more. Never rule out something without thought as you may be shutting off the route that will take you to the next level in an area of your life.
• Competing isn’t a must-do but a should-do. You only learn about yourself when you step outside your comfort zone and challenge yourself and competing is a great way to do so. You will fall back to the highest point of your training. Afterwards you will learn more about your training and yourself then any other class will teach you. Give it a go.
• Practice what you preach.
• You will never be finished. Martial arts is a life long journey of development, learning and fun. Enjoy the ride and stop worrying about the destination.
• Visualize your goals, see yourself achieving them. Plan them out, work out the tasks needed to achieve them, and then put in the work. Every. Damn. Day!
• Be grateful when you train. Stop caring about the taps, stop caring what others are doing. Be grateful that you can train and just work on being a better version of yourself than you were yesterday.
• Never give up, never stop. The last round is always the best round!