Success is Sharing

Martial arts training is a very personal experience that focuses on personal growth. This is a good thing! However, this can sometimes make it a very "self-focused" exercise. As we concentrate on our improvement, our goals, our techniques, we must be aware that our attitude may become selfish and self-centered.

Training in martial arts is different than running or lifting weights. The people who are on our journey with us are very important to our growth. We need training partners that will push us to be better. We need to practice our martial arts on many different body types in many different scenarios. We need to teach the material to others in order to help us better understand the material.

An important part of training is to balance the yin (the soft) with the yang (the hard). This can take a lot of time to get right. We can say that our physical training in learning to do bodily harm to someone focuses on the yang. In contrast, our character and attitude of seeking peace can be our yin. An attitude of self-centered focus in only our training makes our character not in balance with our training.

" The most important human endeavors is the striving for morality in our actions.  Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life. "   - Albert Einstein

Here are some questions that we can ask ourselves to see how our training attitude is:

1. As we train, do we compare ourselves to others and feel bad when someone else is doing better than us at the moment?
2. Do you keep insights to yourself, afraid that if you were to share them, someone might have an edge on you?
3. Do you avoid helping others because is might make them better or even possible better than you?

If the answer to those is 'yes', that person may be coming from a self-centered mode of training. That person often holds tight to what he/she knows. That person may become afraid to share, worrying that someone will steal his/her ideas or secret technical advantaged. The problem with this type of thinking is the student becomes stale and stagnant in growth. The focus becomes on worrying too much about what others think versus the reality of who we are. We could become obsessed with avoiding potential failure, leading to avoiding pushing ourselves outside our comfort zone. Once that happens, we stop growing.

If we can simply change our attitude to one of giving and sharing, our training experience will be enriched, Training partners will look forward to working with us and through this process we will get better as they get better. As we help others, we learn the techniques even better because we get to learn them again and again. As we push others to become better, they will push us to become better.

There is enough opportunity for growth for everyone. We should be happy when others attain success because this means that we are successful too! Success and achievement is contagious! Success is easy when you and the people around you are all pulling for your success.

I challenge you to look for opportunities to help others achieve their goals. I promise you will see it return to you ten-fold!

Train Strong to Remain Strong
- Professor Kelly