Mastery of Oneself

Human growth is achieved in any area, intelligence, career advancement, physical strength, emotional fortitude, technical, and occupational skills, when we get better at it. Development is a better word. We can develop our strengths, weaknesses, and areas where we have no skill at all. No matter how great our growth in one area becomes, eventually we reach our limit. A place where no matter how hard one studies or trains or practices, they can't seem to get better.

Martial arts is a system that puts people in direct contact with that limit, if they are willing, and equips them with the necessary tools to surpass it. Short of religion, nothing else forces a man to confront his mind, body and spirit in an effort to reach some semblance of perfection. And even on their own, martial arts cannot help one accomplish this: there has to be some form of conviction. For Bruce Lee, it was creating a philosophy to accompany his art that made it as efficient as possible, getting rid of all unnecessary movements and keeping only what is useful. For me, it's eliminating weaknesses. Becoming stronger and more in control of my abilities. The difference between me and Bruce Lee is that he developed a system to accomplish his goal, I'm still a work in progress.

Strong martial artists master themselves. The goal is never to learn to beat someone to a bloody, pride-shattered pulp, but to surpass one's own limitations and overcome obstacles. Unfortunately, not everyone makes it that far. Sometimes it's a simple matter of not knowing what's beyond the limit. It's effectively the land of the unknown. You have no way of knowing what to expect or whether or not you will actually advance. But if you're there, you might as well try.

There's a saying, "Amateurs work until they get it right. Professionals work until they can't get it wrong." When we reach our limit, we are most likely on our way to becoming a professional at the thing we are doing, or maybe we already are: what it takes to get to that point is recognition and confrontation of the weakness of your ability. There are many things that we can do right, but that doesn't mean that there aren't imperfections, or more precisely, inefficiencies in our methods.

That saying isn't just a method of practice, it's a state of mind. When you first begin learning anything, the goal is to get it right. When learning algebra the goal of practice problems is to learn to get the problems right. When studying for any test in college, the goal is always to practice until you get it right. In doing so, we learn what makes the solution right and how to reproduce a correct answer. The mentality is getting it right.

The professional's mindset is completely different. Armed with knowledge of how to do something right, they can focus on not ever getting it wrong. This level of perfection isn't always attainable, humans aren't perfect, but the road to perfecting one's skill is about making the decision to confront that which is weak or reluctant inside of you and instead of ridding yourself of it, making it stronger. Make it work for you instead of against.

TBC...