“I don’t care if I’m a white belt for ten years. want skills not belts”.
“I’d rather be a white belt submitting blues and purples than a blue belt getting submitted by whites”.
Not really.
We all decry “belt chasers”, those shallow souls driven only by the next stripe, the next belt …
But avoiding promotions because you don’t want to look like you maybe might not deserve them is at least as egotistical as lusting after the next one.
You are MEANT to level up from a good white belt to a crappy blue belt. Stick with it for six months, you’ll be an OK blue belt. Two years, you’ll be a GOOD blue belt. Ready to level up to becoming a low level purple, incentivized to level up, shedding the blue skin to become a fresh purple, ready to be crushed again. But only for a while.
You want to be both a long term, really good, white belt. Stay away from competition. If you’re the outlier white belt you claim to want to be, you’ll get called out for sandbagging. And if you don’t compete, how good can you be, really?
You’re like a gamer levelling up or an insect going through multiple phases of metamorphosis. This is the process. It is a tool that can absolutely work for you if you use it for its purpose.
Milestones on an endless highway. Get to work!