Interview with Chuck Rylant – Helping others reach their goals is what motivates me to wake up each day

• Hello Chuck, can you please introduce yourself.

I am a retired police officer/detective and live on the California Central Coast. These days I wear a few professional hats. I still do expert witness work in homicide trials where I educate attorneys, judges, and juries on the nuances of violent fights.

But most of my time is spent as an author and coach where I help my clients with their life, finance, and business goals. I also teach Jiu-Jitsu to the public at Paragon Jiu-Jitsu in San Luis Obispo and to law enforcement at the police academy.

• How did you find out about BJJ? Tell us your story.

I did traditional martial arts for most of my teen years and was competitive in Tae Kwon Do. Later as a police officer I got into a fight with a murder suspect and afterwards a co-worker told me about Royce Gracie and the UFC. This was in the late 1990’s when it was not very popular, so I had never heard of it.

My friend gave me an old VHS tape of the early UFC fights and I was blown away, so once a week I started making the six-hour round trip drive to Torrance, California, to train with the Gracies.

• You are the author of one of the most interesting books about Jiu Jitsu called “Motivation: Stories on Life and Success from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belts”. Can you tell us more about it, for the people who are not familiar with it?

I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed Motivation because creating that project was a true joy for me. It began with a question that formed as I was getting older and did not have the same passion and excitement I once had for Jiu-Jitsu, as well as life.

I’ve always been a highly motivated, but to be honest, each year adds to the accumulation of pain and hardships that sometimes make it challenging to keep moving forward.

Writing that book was a good excuse to have 12 amazing conversations with highly accomplished Jiu-Jitsu black belts to discover what motivated them to overcome adversity and keep moving forward.

• Tell us more about the sequel “Success: The Path to Personal Fulfillment Through Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Fighters”

Motivation was a very successful book, and many had asked me to write a sequel. Initially I was reluctant because of how much time it takes.
But eventually I got the itch and decided I wanted to go a little deeper and write Success. I’m glad I did because these stories are intense, but the interviews were incredibly inspiring for me write and now I’m excited to share them with you.

• You are one-on-one life coach and writer of many books. How did you get there? Which book is your favorite one?

I’ve written six books, a blog, and a monthly print newsletter, but everything I’ve ever written begins with some question that I am trying to answer for myself. Writing helps me organize my thoughts so I can work through challenges and find answers. I don’t think I have a favorite book, because each has helped provide answers to different questions. That said, I think Success came out really well and I’m very excited about it.


It may sound cliché, but I love helping other people. Once I get something figured out that helps me, I want to share it with others in a way that makes their learning curve is a little less steep.

Helping others reach their goals is what motivates me to wake up each day. One-on-one coaching, teaching at a college, writing books, etc., are all the same thing to me—a way to share and help other people live their own version of an extraordinary life.

• You are a retired police officer; how did Jiu-Jitsu help you in this journey.

What makes Jiu-Jitsu life-changing is that it enables you to develop true self-confidence. A lot of people claim they are confident, but they are full of shit. I can only speak for men, but most of us start life very insecure and in constant fear of not being enough.

It’s particularly hard for men when they feel they must compete to attract women. Male competition leads to many forms of posturing, like status with money, positions of power, or passive aggressive political games, but the ultimate form of posturing is through aggression.

Jiu-Jitsu eliminates those insecurities, because if it came down to it, you could dominate most men in a fight. With true confidence, you no longer need to posture, because there is nothing left to prove.

To answer your original question, Jiu-Jitsu helped me as a cop because it made me confident that if I had to fight, I would probably win. That confidence kept me from being an asshole, which in all honesty, some cops have not figured out.

• Tell us more about your routines, what is the secret to becoming a successful person?

Today, success means that every day I am working towards a meaningful goal that in some small way makes the world a better place.

There are many things which might fit that description. A housewife is successful if she loves raising her family. An artist is successful if he loves painting pictures that bring joy to others.

The secret to success is to create a routine where you work towards meaningful goals every single day, even on the days when you do not want to.

I write a little every day, even on Christmas. Progressively working towards something meaningful every day is what makes me happy in the long-run, even if there are times in the short-run that I do not particularly want to.

• How often do you train Jiu-Jitsu?

I have always been a BJJ hobbyist. I’m like a turtle pacing myself for the long game. I balance Jiu-Jitsu with family, business, and other obligations. On a good week, I train three times per week, but twice is my average. I teach one public BJJ class and attend at least one class per week.

My greatest training challenge today is maintaining energy and managing pain from injuries. Jiu-Jitsu consumes a lot of my energy, so I must pace myself. However, not doing Jiu-Jitsu also causes me pain—physical and emotional, so it’s a constant juggling act.

• Can you give any advice for our readers?  Any tip that can help people on the mat or real life.

In the book Success, I told my story for the first time and I hinted at this in the last chapter, but I will lay it out for you here. Most people go through life as passive observers waiting to see what will happen, and usually, they are disappointed by the outcome.

The best advice I can offer is for you to decide who you want to be and how you want to live your life. Then create the most amazing character you can imagine and work like hell to make that character a reality in the movie of your life.

If you’d like to learn more, my website is packed full of free articles on life and success at www.ChuckRylant.com