Your Greatest Opponent

Who is your greatest opponent? If you practice jutsu-te then you have asked yourself this question time and again. My greatest opponent is myself!

Often people in trouble look outside themselves to find answers. The only answers you should seek are those you have in yourself. You might feel that some person has some special skill and can provide you the lessons but in reality those who do this are actually "listening attentively" and "reflecting" to get you to find the answers within yourself.

Why you have to find your own solutions:

1. You have all the data. No matter how effective the other person is at listening they can never have all the information you do.

2. You are taking all the risks. If the other persons solution isn't good you will suffer the consequences.

3. You must implement the solution. You know that your acceptance to take an action is more likely to be successful if you are the one who made the decision, right?

4. It is your confidence and sense of self-responsibility that is strengthened when you make and implement your own solution. It is a step toward shaping your own destiny.

5. Both you and a listener become less dependent on the other as a listener or helper.

Of course it can be much more convenient for you if you just allow others to lead you around so that you can give yourself the excuse it is there fault you fail. If you do fail it is no one's fault but your own. Take control of your life, find your own destiny. You have all the answers and the only purpose for the other person as a listener is to be a sounding board that reflects you so you can find your answers yourself while developing a friendship with a listener. You win, the listener if needed wins and both become close and successful.

Ever wonder why Sensei in Okinawa might not provide more than the simplest of of comments? They want you to discover for yourself what you can do and what you can define and what you can apply in martial arts.