Martial Immersion

Martial arts is like any other skill or art. It will never truly be a part of you unless you completely immerse yourself in it. Going to a class 2 times a week without practicing in between, working out, reading about it, constantly thinking about, and many other supporting activities - may allow you to become someone who knows a martial art but not likely someone who is a really good martial artist.

Anyone that I know who has made it to black belt has been obsessed with their training. The obsession may take on different forms but what ensues is a constant forward drive to a specific goal (or set of goals). I cannot imagine entering a new year without having specific attainable goals that are designed to improve my skill, knowledge and connection to martial arts or other assets of my life.

The biggest revelation that I have had lately that I can share is that people (myself included) tend to deviate way to often from a set course of action. There are obviously good reasons to cease certain activities (injuries etc.) but for the most part I find that people get distracted, they don't get the results they wanted immediately, or find that something ended up being harder than they thought it would. With all the available distractions and avenues to explore it's easy to jump ship and catch the next thing with very little grief. The problem with this approach is it's tends to be one step forward, two steps back - you never really gain any ground.

My strategy to defeat this pitfall is to narrow my focus on a few key things each year, re-assess less and trust the goals and the methods that I have set out to achieve them more. Most of the time the path I set out for myself is based on research, expert advise and proven methods - therefore I need to question less once it's time to act. I have found lately that by sticking with a couple of key things that I am focused on, not allowing myself to get sidetracked - staying the course - and especially, taking consistent action! I have made serious improvements in a couple of areas.

The question now is: How was I able to teach that tiger to do Long underwater...