Mikey Musumeci is one of the most successful Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes today. However, he had to push through a lot of obstacles along the way to get here; including depression.

Mikey shared a part of his story in an interview with Fightlore Official:

I moved a lot as a kid and lived in, like, 11 different homes. So, it was definitely hard making friends when you move so much.
I pretty much battled depression my whole life also, so those are pretty much the hardships I’ve dealt with – and Jiu-Jitsu helped me so much to overcome those things.

I’ve always just felt a little different than the other kids I was around, you know? So I always just wanted to fit in and feel normal. So, it definitely was hard for me growing up feeling that.

That, I guess, helped me with Jiu-Jitsu because it made me just work harder. And I was able to enjoy Jiu-Jitsu, so that helped me through my depression.

Today, Mikey’s source of motivation is improvement and a sense of the shortness of time:

What keeps me going, I would say, is my motivation and drive. I’m always trying to get better and improve and I know how short our life is. I know how limited our time is.
So, I feel like every second I’m not working toward my goal, I feel like I’m wasting time.

In other words, he believes that the thing that separates him from other competitors today is his obsession:

I think all the competitors I can be with are amazing, but I think what separates myself is my obsession.
I’m never not thinking of Jiu-Jitsu, every hour in the day I’m thinking of it. So, I think that my obsession separates me.

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