“It’s not only techniques but also your attitude.” – Teruyuki Okazaki 10th dan Shotokan (1931–2020)
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You always have a choice. It’s a wonderful thing to know that at any moment you have the freedom, the ability, the power to choose what to do. How to train or workout, practice at home, whether to go to the dojo, or skip a class… and you have the choice on how to live your life.
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Yes, it sounds easy but it can be the hardest thing in the world to do… to make a choice and then live with it. Because the choices you make create your life; make you who you are. They are your present. They are your future. And those choices are possibly your destiny.
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Depending on how we feel, we choose to be negative or positive in the way we think. We choose to judge people and things with complaints and bitterness, or to be kind and fair. Essentially you choose to be a victim or a hero.
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It’s an amazing gift, the freedom of choice, because if you want to change, to be different in any way, you’re free to do that. You’re free to choose… workout or be lazy… goodness over cruelty… patience over intolerance… understanding and love, over anger and hatred.
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Life is full of choices and every choice has its consequences. It either makes you a stronger, better person, or it can break you; make you feel you have to fight for yourself because the world is a bad place and you can’t trust anyone.
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No matter how difficult the choice or decision you are making, you can ask some simple questions for clarity: What do I really want? What will give me peace and calm me down? How can I turn this around, reframe it so I find the best answer?
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The more you ask questions of yourself, the more you open yourself up to a peaceful state of mind. Life is both easy and hard. Sometimes it knocks you down regularly, but even then you have the power to choose how you want to experience it, how you want to react to it. You don’t have to be helpless. You can choose to fight, to improve and grow, choose to look on the bright side and find something you’re grateful for, proud of, something that makes you happy and strong, even at your lowest.
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”In life you cannot always choose what you do, but you can always choose who you are.” …. No matter how things may seem, you always have a choice. 
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