There is something very different about being a martial artist; it makes you different from other people, it sets you apart from the crowd. Anyone can go to a gym, a fitness class or a sports center, but to continue to black belt and beyond takes someone special.
.
But after weeks, months and sometimes years, people lose interest, they get bored and believe that they will not reach their goal, they feel that the transformation is too far away and it will never happen to them.
.
The result is that they sabotage the only way that ensured they were on this path, they stop going to training! And they give up. I have seen this so many times. How often have you heard?; “I used to do karate!” The decision to ‘stop’ is made in a second, and the sad thing is that all the hard work they put in for years, is undone.
.
There is so much more, if you have the patience to endure.
.
The martial arts will teach you not to react to other’s problems, but to pay attention to your own. Life comes down to moments where we react, or we don’t. Martial arts teaches you the distinction of when to react, and when not to……. Awareness is everything.
.
In our culture, we tend to focus on outcomes. The end of the technique, not the beginning. Winning versus losing. Gaining weight versus losing weight. In the martial arts, I’ve learned that process is growth, regardless of outcome. A journey in the martial arts is a journey from within. To that end, as we grow older, we need not stop growing, we need not stop learning.
.
More than sport, fighting, or self-defense, the martial arts are first and foremost about life. About finding what is at the essence of your own being and expressing that essence.
.
The martial arts are also about art. Bruce Lee once said; ”To be a martial artist means to be an artist of life.”…. One of the biggest lessons I have learned from the martial arts, is that life’s greatest battles are fought within. You must find the willingness to seek your limitations and work with and through them. Don’t give up. You’re only just beginning, it is always the journey that matters.
.
“Karate cannot be quickly learned. Like a slow moving bull, it eventually travels a thousand miles. If one trains diligently every day, then in three or four years one will come to understand karate. Those who train in this fashion will discover karate.” – Anko Itosu, October 1908
.
.

.