Today, on a blog post, a commenter made a statement that inspired this post. Today's, not all but a lot, martial systems tend to lean heavily toward such things as money, gratification, minimal effort, minimal attendance and minimal effort outside the training facility. The tend to ignore such things as sweat, blood, tears, exertion, honest effort, diligence, repetitive practice, etc.
One point stressed in the post was the lack of perceived failure in practice and training. We fail, it is a part of life. It is how we all build our experiences, both with success and failure. It is the same duality of opposites that result in change, yin for success and yang for failure. Failure results in a creative process where a person looks within and deals with the emotional ride failure brings with it be it a mile failure or a large one.
It is these failures that teach us how to be successful. It is how we attribute value to those failures in achieving success, both current and future. If you don't stretch outside your norm, your comfort zone, your mental limits then you are doomed to continue failing or worse you are doomed to do nothing.
Martial systems require a lot of practice, training and more practice. It deals with gratification and boredom. It has a requirement of attendance and dedication to an effort that exposes you to "both" success and failure. It results in an effort and self-acceptance that raises the level of esteem, ability and expertise in the things we do in life and in martial arts.
We are human and we all have to remind ourselves that life is not just about the good things, the fun things, getting our highs without the possibilities of the lows. Instant gratifications without the natural low points between or at least a balance of the low and high are not what it is all about. Are we losing the true value of achievement when we assume that there are or should not be any failures and those emotional prices we pay to experience it all?
All to often those who participate in a form of martial art dedicated to those things that provide gratification without the flip side of hard work, dedication and diligence tend to lose site of what matters. Those who give this willingly and for the sole model of profit do us all a disservice. It is this that makes one hesitate to say to the uninitiated that they practice karate simply because of misinformation, misuse and misunderstanding.
Failure is the essence of success. It is a corner stone of martial systems, traditional and classical. It makes an expert, an expert, It makes the master, the master. Failure is not given its due and often relegated to some distant dark corner of the unspeakable. Failure is the light that shows us the way to enlightenment. Its darkest reaches illuminate the path to great success.
To be open to failure is to be available for success. Take failure out of the closet and choose to meet it head on, full force and with the open-mind of self to achieve higher levels of success.
No comments:
Post a Comment