Somewhere in the recesses of my brain I remember a quote, I don't know who said it, or the situation in which it was said, but I do remember what was said. "I win because I'm not afraid to lose," this quote comes to my mind every time I think about ego (my own ego especially).

I remember when I first started to train in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu; I always worried what other people would think of me if I tapped to a smaller guy, or a less experienced guy. I'm ashamed to admit it now, but I was too stubborn to tap because I wanted to preserve my ego. What I didn't realize at the time was that this preoccupation with winning and losing was causing me to lose. It was consuming my focus and taking away my ability to perform correct technique. Losing wasn't anything I obsessed over, but it definitely was something I thought about. Even in the middle of training, I would think about not losing, and for that split second I would lose focus.

"I win because I'm not afraid to lose," simply means that the fighter doesn't worry about his ego. He's not preoccupied by whether he wins or loses. He lives in the moment, the now. He attacks and defends according to what his opponent is doing at that moment, and spends no time worrying about the results of the fight. He has no ego.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu has a wonderful way of stripping its practitioners of their ego. You realize early on that you cannot be preoccupied with worry, with vanity. You must focus on what's going on at that moment, if you don't, you'll struggle for focus and have a hard time with technique.

Your ego can be a detriment to your training. It can take away your ability to win. While training, it doesn't matter if you win or lose, if you worry about those things, you will fail, and only when you're not concerned with outcomes will you really excel in your training.