If you are a serious martial artist, you won’t let anyone interfere with your martial arts. Training time is too important or valuable to be interfered with. It has to be done every day and takes priority over everything else.
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Attending the Dojo, lessons and seminars are the same. They go in the calendar first and everything else is arranged around them. Family and friends need to understand this.
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Why is this? Why is it so important to us?
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The reason is; that is what makes us, and keeps us who and what we are. Everyday we methodically work on our body, our mind and emotional intelligence. Everyday is a progression and this is key to making us a better person.
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The warrior mentality means that we keep going against all odds, unwittingly or not, other people are forever trying to change our priorities and guide us towards apathy, laziness and distraction….. but we persevere.
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Exceptional people have to do exceptional things. Others have to accept us this way, or walk away. Those that understand this are true family and friends.
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Respect between ‘proper’ martial artists and for each other’s arts and styles, is important to us. Those that don’t have that ethos, that haven’t been schooled in the etiquette, manners and respect that is inherent in a traditional system, won’t get it. Social media is awash with ‘casual trainers’ and ‘keyboard warriors’ who are quick to criticize that which they don’t like or understand, with the arrogance that if you don’t train like them, and think like them, then you must be an idiot. It is they that can’t see where the ignorance and idiocy really lies.
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Martial arts are based in humility and respect for others. A good martial artist is comfortable in their own skin, is able to show patience, kindness, tolerance and compassion, alongside the courage, resolve and determination they have incessantly trained.
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Martial artists are a breed of their own, sometimes following a tradition that has been passed down through the ages from instructor to student in many an unbroken line. The techniques may change, but the underlying ethos doesn’t.
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When we hold something sacred, our efforts, dedication and yes, sacrifices, come from a deep place of “want to”, versus “have to”, despite the degree of difficulty to achieve them, or what we may choose to give up to experience them. The sacrifices we make come from a deep sense of joy, rather than from any sense of obligation.
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Are you a serious martial artist?
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 Image Credit and with grateful thanks for the majority of the words to Steve Rowe 9th dan Shikon International.
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