Freedom

I lost a long blog post I wrote while watching the girls' swimming lessons because I assumed that the blogger app would autosave what I was writing.

It was probably the most inspired blog post that I ever wrote (probably not). To make a long story short I was writing about how I had a pretty rough week on account of a few things and that one of my major issues is that I re-asses too much. Re-assessing as part of the black belt cycle is a good thing but you have to stay the course for a little while first.

It's so easy to get distracted with all of the information and opinions in the world (of martial arts and in general) that it proves to take a lot of discipline just to stay focused on any one given thing for any significant length of time, and a significant length of time is what it takes to gain a lot of the skills we are looking for. When we re-assess too often and find that maybe we haven't got as far as we wanted instead of re-applying ourselves we tend to change paths. This habit tends to put my training in a zig-zagging motion instead of a strait forward march as it should be.

I recognize that I am impatient when it comes to my training, I want have all of the eggs in my basket as soon as possible (planning for the rapture I suppose). To continue the bad analogy of eggs in a basket .. to put them in too quick means that they're getting tossed in and therefore cracked and tarnished rather than taking the time to place them in (e.i taking the time to properly develop skill and technique rather than just checking off a list of items that have been completed). Not to say that I think all of my eggs are broken - but there are some chipped ones that need a good spackling.

Trusting what our instructors have to say about how to progress is often like a child trusting the parent who tells them not to touch the stove. It's a lot less painful to just trust them then it is to find out for yourself that you should have just listened to some sound advise.

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On a completely different note I had my relocated finger re-assessed today, not too soon. The splint is gone and I have new found freedom in my right hand. I have to say that the doctor I saw was pretty awesome. It's a rare (way too rare) treat to have a doctor who does not look physically annoyed that you are wasting his time by being sick or injured. Dr. Weston at the St.Albert hospital was patient and thoughtful and he took the time to answer my questions and even let me take a picture of the original x-ray from last month - check it out.

(sideways view) I drew the outline of my hand to show how gnarly the dislocation was - awesome hey. My finger feels better already just being able to move it around but there is no way that I can make a fist, I will have to carry a tennis ball around with me to help strengthen my finger and to ensure that my finger doesn't get bent past it's range accidentally.