I don't blame my former students, or myself that much. What I do blame is the epidemic of instant gratification or success that is king over most people's mindset in America. And movies. The level of misrepresentation martial arts get in movies is exactly like a morbidly obese man sitting naked in front of a computer and telling some pedo somewhere that he's talking to a perky 15 year-old.
Imagine his disappointment when he learns the truth. |
Everybody works under the assumption that they can become geniuses in 6 months if they do a couple montage training scenes or something. No, it doesn't work that way and you'll only accomplish failure if you try, so don't. Trust me.
What works is practice. Then after that, practice. I got my black belt in 2 years and what was a major reason for that? Only the fact that I trained until I couldn't feel my legs, or until I literally had no more breath to spare. Or that I really knew that I should stop when I got that sweet metallic aftertaste in the back of my throat because my mouth probably dried up from sweating too much. The point is that I whooped my own ass into shape. My instructors and sifu were a huge part of that, but when they left and classes were over, I still practiced.
This really applies to everything, but when things get challenging, the majority of us will toss our hands up and quit. If we can't do it immediately without skipping over the vital process of being broken, then we don't want to do it. And that's really sad. Imagine what we could accomplish, how much self-esteem we would have if we allowed just a little challenge in our lives instead of passing them by.
So wasteful.