Imagine

Imagine for a moment that somewhere in the middle of Texas there was a large foreign military base, say Chinese or Russian. Imagine that thousands of armed foreign troops were constantly patrolling American streets in military vehicles. Imagine they were here under the auspices of "keeping us safe" or "promoting democracy" or "protecting their strategic interests."

Imagine that they operated outside of U.S. law, and that the Constitution did not apply to them. Imagine that every now and then they made mistakes or acted on bad information and accidentally killed or terrorized innocent Americans, including women and children, most of the time with little to no repercussions or consequences. Imagine that they set up checkpoints on our soil and routinely searched and ransacked entire neighborhoods of homes. Imagine if Americans were fearful of these foreign troops and overwhelmingly thought America would be better off without their presence.

Imagine if some Americans were so angry about them being in Texas that they actually joined together to fight them off, in defense of our soil and sovereignty, because leadership in government refused or were unable to do so. Imagine that those Americans were labeled terrorists or insurgents for their defensive actions, and routinely killed or captured and tortured by the foreign troops on our land. Imagine that the occupiers' attitude was that if they just killed enough Americans, the resistance would stop, but instead, for every American killed, 10 more would take up arms against them, resulting in perpetual bloodshed. Imagine if most of the citizens of the foreign land also wanted these troops to return home. Imagine if they elected a leader who promised to bring them home and put an end to this horror.

Imagine if that leader changed his mind once he took office.

The reality is that our military presence on foreign soil is as offensive to the people that live there as armed Chinese troops would be if they were stationed in Texas. We would not stand for it here, but we have had a globe-straddling empire and a very intrusive foreign policy for decades that incites a lot of hatred and resentment toward us.

According to our own CIA, our meddling in the Middle East was the prime motivation for the horrific attacks on 9/11. But instead of reevaluating our foreign policy, we have simply escalated it. We had a right to go after those responsible for 9/11, to be sure, but why do so many Americans feel as if we have a right to a military presence in some 160 countries when we wouldn't stand for even one foreign base on our soil, for any reason? These are not embassies, mind you, these are military installations. The new administration is not materially changing anything about this. Shuffling troops around and playing with semantics does not accomplish the goals of the American people, who simply want our men and women to come home. Fifty thousand troops left behind in Iraq is not conducive to peace any more than 50,000 Russian soldiers would be in the United States.

Shutting down military bases and ceasing to deal with other nations with threats and violence is not isolationism. It is the opposite. Opening ourselves up to friendship, honest trade, and diplomacy is the foreign policy of peace and prosperity. It is the only foreign policy that will not bankrupt us in short order, as our current actions most definitely will. I share the disappointment of the American people in the foreign policy rhetoric coming from the administration. The sad thing is, our foreign policy will change eventually, as Rome's did, when all budgetary and monetary tricks to fund it are exhausted.

Ron Paul

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Attitude of Gratitude

"Of all the "attitudes" we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing".

I just returned from Washington D.C. from our MMA millionaire mastermind meeting. Lloyd was brilliant as always and I couldn't help but feel extremely thankful to be given the opportunity to be involved in everything team Lloyd Irvin has done culminating to a mastermind meeting where other people outside of our inner circle where brought in.

I was asked the other day what I thought was the most important thing when it came to being successful. Let me first say that when I'm asked this kind of question I always ask what kind of success they're talking about because my idea of success in life is different than most. The easiest path to both, in my opinion, starts with passion which is directly tied to appreciation which if successful should eventually mold into gratitude for others

There's a lot more to success than just passion and gratitude but I thought it was interesting how the two things were so close together. I don't think you can be truly successful without showing REAL gratitude. Most unnsuccesful people do the opposite of show gratitude and hate on success and furthermore hate on anyone doing better than them. Instead of focusing on their passion and staying positive they focus on the negative and are jealous. I've lost a lot of so called friends to this.

If you're reading this right now sit back and think about anyone you're jealous of. Picture them in your mind and then replace it with something your grateful for. Gratitude naturally combats jealousy, you just have to train your mind to think that way. When I ask someone what they are grateful for I see a lot of times people don't even realize all that they have. And by doing this excercise I can't tell you the last time I was actually jealous of someone.

When I ask myself that question and look at my life and my success I quickly realize that theirs a lot to be gratful for. I'm grateful for my parents who have supported me all of these years through the ups and downs, Lloyd who has motivated me and made me believe that I am actually capable of achieving anything, my best friends Byron Schneider, Adam Jones, Shawn Hammonds, Josh Schockman, Eddie Bravo, and Scott Nelson, all my other friends who are really friends, my team here at Nashville MMA, team Lloyd Irvin and the list can go on and on when I think about it.

Most importantly I'm grateful to God for letting me be alive right now. (I'm very fortunate)

I hope that you all find your passion and can understand the attitude of gratitude and why it's so important in being happy and succesful. If you read this I am grateful:)

Peace!!
EC

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Suffering Is Necessary For Happiness

Just got back from UFC 118. John fought a good fight and simply got caught. I was happy with his camp and happy with his effort. One of the the things I tell all of our fighter is that no matter how you do, as long as you give 100% you're still a champion. John trained very hard and came up short, but make no mistake he is still a champion.

I finished reading “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years” that my friend Steve Hannah gave to me as a gift. It was a good book about how life is basically a series of stories that we are living. And to have a good life you must have a series of good stories that define you.

The book referenced one of my favorite books: “Man’s Search For Meaning” and the story of Job from the bible. It also reminded me of the first line in the book “The Road Less Traveled” where it says “Life is difficult”.

One of the common themes in all of these great books is that our own suffering is necessary to live a better life and have a better understanding of the meaning. The “story” that we live must have conflict to make us stronger.

This idea, is in my opinion, why so many people are unhappy in life. We are so afraid of conflict that we avoid it at all costs. We don’t deal with problems and are looking for the quick material fix to make us happy. Conflict and suffering are absolutely necessary to have a truly meaningful life.

If we look back at all the adversity’s that we’ve had in life I would bet that with the majority of them we would say have made us stronger people. So why is it that we run from these adversity’s and choose not to deal with them? It’s through these trials and tribulations that we learn who we really are. Some people seem so happy on the outside but are being torn apart internally.

This got me thinking about the story that I’m currently living. I read something the other day that said “The blessings God places in your hands are determined by what you are willing to let go of first”. This is so true and something that has played out in my life. I know the things that I currently need to let go of and I have let go of a lot. I’ve learned this truth through my suffering.

I was meditating a couple weeks ago and a simple idea came to me that less is more. When I started thinking about what this message meant it made me realize the things that I need to let go of in life. It’s the suffering that I’ve experienced that allowed me to know what to cut out and what to keep. The idea is that the less stress, bills, and distractions I have the more happiness and financial freedom I can have and even in the end the more money I can make. I’m not at a bad financial spot right now but the recession over the last two years was very tough. It was through the suffering that I learned that a lot of the things I was doing with my money to make me seemingly happier was actually making me unhappy. It caused more stress. It caused me to have to re evaluate what I really wanted in life and what was truly important. In the end all the material things that I have had made me no happier.

I’ve been torn about wanting to do projects to help people and do the things that I’m currently doing now. I’m working on a system where I’m cutting everything out that does not help me be truly happy. In this process a lot of people will be cut out and I’m going to seem a bit cold. But the situations and experiences that have dragged me down in anyway must go. It’s only going to be when I let go of these things that God will bless me with more.

As I said in a previous blog I had something come to me in another mediation that said “let go and let be”. I’ve started to do this and I’m seeing good results. Spiritually I’m getting stronger. My heart is telling me to go save the world. I know that sounds a bit absurd but I have an opportunity to make a huge impact on society. I’m not sure when I’m going to make the project I’m working on public but I believe with everything in me that it will help millions of people.

To be able to do this to the best of my ability I’m going to have to let some things go and I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t difficult. But with the idea that less is more and let go and let be I’m well on my way to finding the true happiness we’re all searching for in humanity. Remember to give without remembering and receive without ever forgetting. Be good and loyal to those who are good and loyal to you. Because when you find people that you know are soldiers with you, that will fight to the end and have the whole ride or die mentality, those are the people that you should be concerned with when going on with relationships. I know who my real friends are and I know who is truly loyal and wants the best for me. All the other fake people can kindly get out of my way. It’s time for me to let go. I’ve learned this from suffering and I thank God for this blessing.

God Bless,

Ed Clay

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What I've Been Doing In my Spare Time

When you peel the layers of your skin back and look deep into your soul what do you see? I don’t expect most people to know this answer, but I’ve been peeling a lot the last few months. The more I peel the more I realize that I was really nothing like I thought I was. I’m not talking about in a physical sense. I’m talking about a deeper, spiritual, soul searching sense. And when I use the term soul searching I don’t mean it in the way most people perceive it.

I was talking to a friend today about the transitional period I’m going through. I’ve reached a point where everything that defined who I was in the past isn’t really important to me anymore. I didn’t have your average upbringing where you go to college and get a job. I received on the job training from the age of 18. College, at the time, wasn’t for me.

From there I started multiple company’s, overcame legal adversity, got involved in real estate, including investing in foreign countries, traveled the world with my fighters and friends and lived the life that I thought I always wanted to live.

Simply put I got caught up in what society has taught us to be a good life. I was listening to Nido Qubein speak the other day and he said "when we’re talking about success, we talk about the three F’s of success, Fans, Fame, Fortune.” He then speaks on how empty this idea or thought is. He goes on to speak about the three F’s of significance: Faith, Family, and Friends. And as he put it when you have this, what else do you really, really, really need?

This brought me to the thought about faith as I was explaining to my friend today. Faith implies that we believe in something that we don’t see. The bible says in Hebrews 11:1 that Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of which you do not yet see. But if God is all around us everyday then what is it that we don’t see. Is it because I have seen God that I don’t think I need faith? Or do I just know? Or is me just knowing really faith?

As I go into deeper meditations and peel back the layers I find myself asking the question “what are we really?” When I ask this question the idea that there is a God is never more evident. Not in the traditional religious way, but from a state that we are all coming from the same consciousness. If from the time we are children we are given a collection of thoughts from other people, and we grow up with more and more ideas from other places we are not really ourselves. We are just a collection of thoughts and ideas from other people that we choose to keep making us the people we think we are. This is scary when we consider that we allow media sources to give us information and accept it as truth or fact. The three F’s of success become the most important thing in life and we forget about the three F’s of significance.

I’m trying to go from a state where I don’t just believe in God but I know God in everything that I do. God is everything and everywhere. God is in all of us. And now I’m searching for the peace in God… this may take some time.

Peace!

Ed

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Happy Father's Day and Nashville MMA is Blowing Up!!

First of all Happy Father's day to all the dad's out there. I was blessed with an amazing dad who has always been there for me. I can't imagine where I'd be if I didn't have such a positive influence in my life. If I look back, I can't remember a baseball game or wrestling match that he wasn't at. He supported me and believed in me when my family was my only team. As success and failure come and go I know I can always count on him no matter how I'm doing.

Our team fought last night and did very well going 11-1 in the Gameness Fighting Championships. Matches that stick out in my mind are Chris Camacho's brutal k.o. in one of the best ammy fights I have ever seen, Charles McTory making his MMA debut and winning by k.o., and Luke Sanders having a very tough first fight with our team and coming out victorious.

I could go through the list and talk about everyone, but the truth is they all did very good. There were some very close matches that they had to dig deep, but they did what they had to do and got the job done. Even our one loss I was happy with as David fought hard even when he was gassed out.

A lot of people don't realize the sacrifices that our fighters make. I just added all the weight up that the guys cut and we had 10 of the 12 guys cutting weight for a total of 171 pounds! I was helping Chris Barnhizer cut on Friday and it brought back old memory's from wrestling. He was sucked out and broke, but he worked through it and got the weight off he needed. And of course he went out the next night and dominated.

If you were to look at our line up right now it's getting to be stacked. We have a room full of amazing athletes that are working hard everyday. Dave Herman, John Salter, Josh Schockman, Dustin Ortiz, Chris Barnhizer, Chris Camacho, Luke Stewart, Charles McTory, Dante Lawson and Kurt Kinzer were training with each other for this fight every night. That doesn't even count the guys like Cory Robison, Ray Casias, Dave Cook, Dave Hurst and Shawn Hammonds who are in the gym every morning. If you look at the first list of guys you have multiple highschool national champion wrestlers, 5 division 1 wrestlers, 1 NAIA national champion wrestler, 1 division 1 all american football player. And of course Herman, Ortiz, Schockman, and Salter have fought in the best organizations in the world. In the second list you have some of the top American BJJ player's out there and Cory Robison who is a world champ.

I was talking to Jeremy Boz the other day and he mentioned how deep the room was getting. The talent level is crazy and we're only going to get better. People can say whatever they want to say but the fact is if your in the area and want to get some of the best MMA training in the world, there is no reason you shouldn't be training at Nashville MMA.

If you don't want to be the best or if your ego is too big to get tapped out and/or beat up in practice,(just like I get beat up) then I completely understand why you don't train with us.

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Congrats To Team Lloyd Irvin and Thank You Lloyd!

Last weekend Team Lloyd Irvin became the first American Team in history to win a team title in any category at the brazilian jiu-jitsu world championships. I would say that I'm surprised by this, but I knew this day would come for the team, and I expect we will win many more. Going into the final day our adult team was in 2nd place and though it may take a bit of time before we win this title, I am confident this day will come too.

I've been reading a lot on the forums about what Lloyd does different than everyone else and a lot of what is written has been correct to a point. I've been a part of the team since 2004 and have traveled all over the world with Lloyd. Next to my parents, Lloyd has had a bigger impact on my life than anyone else in the world.

To have a great team you must have a great leader. That leader must also have a great vision on were he wants to take you and I have personally seen Lloyd's vision become a reality. If you want to learn how to be successful there is no better person to look at than Lloyd. He commands respect, does what he says he's going to do, and leads by example. He has the best work ethics of ANYONE I know and a wisdom about him that I don't think can be taught. His wisdom is his greatest asset and I think that this is something that he's simply been blessed with. Yes he has a desire to learn and get better, yes he studies what works the best for any and every situation, but all of that aside God blessed Lloyd Irvin to be an amazingly wise leader.

Over the years Lloyd and I have talked for hours about everything from life, to BJJ, to MMA, to just about anything. Lloyd has kept me sane through all of my crazy thoughts and shortcoming that very few people know about. I look at how our team does in competition and it's no surprise we win. The same thing that goes for our team has gone for me in life. I know if Lloyd is happy with the things that I've done, then I have done well. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose.

Most people that know me would say I'm pretty fearless when it comes to things. But the fact is the biggest fear I have in life is failing. One of our teams motto's is that no matter what happens, win or lose, as long as we give 100% we're still a champion. I've flat out failed a number of times the last few years but Lloyd has always given me encouragement to get back up and give 100%. I'm sure it's been the same for the other members of our team. He has made a huge impact in a lot of people's lives.

To all the Team Lloyd Irvin members congratulations on your title. To Lloyd, congratulations and thank you for everything. I know that you probably realize this but you inspiring me and others inspires us to inspire and so on and so on. When it's all said and done you will have done some amazing work in a lot of people's lives.

In the end, none of this is really about BJJ, MMA, or Muay Thai. It's about becoming better people and Lloyd has produced a lot more champions in life than people know. In many ways he's something we all should aspired to become.

So with that... Time to go train!!

Ed Clay

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"When I see I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I see I am everything, that is love. My life is a movement between these two."

I was reading the book "I am that" by Nisargadatta Maharaj and doing some meditation. This book is a contradiction to my life in a lot of ways but i have a very open mind and I'm always open to new ideas. I was meditating focusing on the "I am" and I kept getting that I am nothing. This was a bit confusing to me and I didn't know what it meant. It did somewhat give me peace but I knew it wasn't the complete answer. When I was reading more of the book he said this. "When I see I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I see I am everything, that is love. My life is a movement between these two."

When I read that it smacked me in the face! I couldn't believe that my mind kept telling me, in this black empty space, that I was nothing. I had yet to be able to comprehend this. I guess I need to move on to the point where "I am everything" but I'm not going to force it. I kind of wish I would have figured it out on my own in meditation, but at least I came up with the "I am nothing" on my own.

I just got back from Vegas and it was a fun trip. Lot's of partying. Like always we had the best of everything. It's one of my favorite places to visit though I wouldn't go back on memorial day weekend. Too busy and much more expensive the on a normal weekend.

When I'm there I can't help but feel a little low in enjoying the superficial things in life. I've worked so hard on expanding my mind that it's always a let down. Everyday while I was at the pool my mind would wonder off thinking about how none of the stuff I was enjoying really mattered. That said we have such a short time on earth I think that we should live life to the fullest and go hard!lol In the end though the only thing that really matters is peace and love in/for yourself and others. That's a balance I'm still looking for... Waiting for full enlightenment... I've got a ways to go!

Peace!

EC

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