The things I have to stop talking about

​​I have been a lifelong martial artist. I have trained and competed, and trained some more. I have lived and breathed martial arts. I ran my own school for almost 15 years. I put in tons of hours training fighters, watching video, and studying fighters. Now this is not a bad thing, but it does become a perdominant part of your life. When something saturates your whole being like this you want to tell everyone about it. You want to talk about with your friends, your parents, your coworkers, and of course your spouse. Whatever you do, do not do this. This was a hard lesson for me to learn. My life was so concentrated on martial arts, mixed martial arts particularly. I wanted to tell everyone especially my wife. I bombarded her with conversation about this fighter or this event. I dragged her to MMA shows. I constantly watched MMA on TV. I even ran my own amateur MMA promotion for seven years. MMA at our house was bread and butter. You could not escape it. I noticed after awhile our conversations started to wane. We were not talking as much. I was so focused on MMA I didn’t know what to talk to my best friend about. We have been together over seven years , not nearly enough time to run out of things to discuss. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t like we weren’t speaking, I just had my focus to narrow. I learned the hard way, that she supported me, but did not love it like I did. She was just tired of hearing about it. She was tired of watching it, and tired of living and breathing it. I have finally closed my school and my MMA promotion. This was probably one of the happiest moments of my life. The stress that was lifted from me was incredible. It also meant that MMA was not the main focus in my life anymore. I still train BJJ and MMA occasionally. I have a gym at my house and go to BJJ class a couple a nights a week. I have learned to have normal husband and wife conversations again. The best thing you can do is never talk about your hobbies with your spouse unless they start the conversation. Know when to keep your mouth shut. One more thing, talk to your spouse. Let them know how you feel. Especially if you are the one on the other side of the conversation. Communicate, everyday.