Find Who You Are And Who You Want To Become
While we train together, learn together, compete together, and attend ceremonies together, martial arts is truly a personal journey. Friendships and competitions have their purpose and place, but the passion, patience, and practice it takes to succeed in martial arts must come from within.
I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.
-Bruce Lee
On the surface, it’s easy to see how achievements belong to the individual. Each student is unique and progresses at their own pace. There is no team that can boost you up or hold you back. There is no LeBron James pulling the weight. There is no quarterback calling the shots. There is no one you to whom you are beholden. You must do the work yourself and for yourself. Your dedication and ambition affect only you; your pacing is own your; your abilities lie solely within yourself. The pursuits of others will not be affected by your failures or successes.
A goal is not always meant to be reached. It often serves simply as something to aim at.
-Bruce Lee
When a student personally achieves a new belt level, it will have different meanings for different people. For some, it is a representation of hard work and dedication. For others, it is a representation of technical ability. And for others still, it is a motivational tool that represents how much farther they have yet to go. There are as many meanings behind belt levels as there are martial artists practicing today.
All knowledge leads to self-knowledge.
-Bruce Lee
On a spiritual level, martial arts is even more personal. Students of martial arts must explore within. Knowledge will give you power, but character will give you respect. To embrace the “art” of martial arts, you have to express yourself through your movement. Of course, when learning a technique, students are taught the “textbook” motions, but through practice and repetition, the student slowly makes it their own. Perhaps you have a physical condition that limits a certain movement and causes you to perform the move differently. Perhaps you must adjust the technique based on the relative size of your opponent. Or, sometimes, it simply feels right to slightly alter the technique. You can move through your forms like a tiger, like a crane, like a leopard, like a snake, like yourself. That is when you truly become the dragon. When you have internalized all the teachings and styles of your martial art and express them through the filter of who you are. The greatest technique is to have no technique. The greatest achievement is to realize you compete not with others, but with yourself. There is no opponent except for who you were yesterday. And comparison is the thief of joy.