Christmas is approaching, and all I keep hearing is ‘It has come around so fast’.
This happens because we all get on with life and forget about Christmas until boom it is upon us and the Christmas TV adverts are on.
Life passes us all quickly, so you need to make the most of it.
The key to making the most of life is to build processes that give you long-term results.
If you think about it, we have this in our life already.
Take school, for example, we start young and go every day so we can learn.
The important thing is that we often go, what we do often we become good at.
Martial Arts are no different and in this article we talk about not giving up, we talk about the art of hope, and we talk about how not to quit Martial Arts
The Ancient Art Of Hope
The world is littered with brown belt Martial Artists.
We see them at parties when they find out what you do and they say ‘ I used to do ‘ and they share the Martial Art they studied.
The issue is not that they got bored, that their job or family life got in the way of training (despite what they say), the issue is they lost hope.
“hope
noun
1.
a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.
“he looked through her belongings in the hope of coming across some information”
synonyms: aspiration, desire, wish, expectation, ambition, aim, plan, dream, daydream, pipe dream; More
2.
archaic
a feeling of trust.
“our private friendship, upon hope and affiance whereof, I presume to be your petitioner”
verb
1.
want something to happen or be the case.”
The hope the martial artist loses is a desire to become something more.
They lose faith that that can go from being ‘them’ to becoming a black belt.
They stumble at the final hurdle because it seems such a leap, such a jump in skill and they are not near that level.
Usually, they are wrong!
How To Lose Hope
When we start Martial Arts, we are filled with high hopes.
We hope that we will be fitter, make friends and also become more proficient in self-defence.
But ultimately we hope to become a Martial Artist.
There is something very different about being a martial artist; it makes you different than other people, it sets you apart from the crowd.
And nothing in the world is a better sign that you are a Martial Artist than the coveted black belt.
But after weeks, months and sometimes years people lose hope that they will reach their goal, they feel that the transformation is too far away and will never happen to them.
The result is that they sabotage the only way that ensured they were on this path, they stop going to training!
The decision to ‘stop’ something is made in a second, and the sad thing is that all the hard work they put in for years is undone.
Do You Feel Like Quitting Now?
You might be reading this and are at the point of quitting your training; you might have lost hope that you can climb the Martial Arts mountain.
I know what that is like, all black belts do.
It is a nagging feeling, a feeling of fear, exhaustion, frustration and finally warmth.
The feeling that quitting is the right thing to do, ‘you don’t need training any more as you are much better than you were’
The feeling that you do not need to pay your monthly fee any longer because that money could go on something else.
And that feeling is warm, seductive and smooth.
Now you have a choice.
You can let that feeling of ‘quitting’ seduce you, or you can turn around, look that feeling in the ‘eyes’ and open a can of ‘whoop ass’ on it.
Trust me if you beat that feeling now it is a victory that will be with you forever.
We all feel like quitting but this is a battle you can win, and it will change your life.
Because while the feeling of quitting is seductive, the feeling of completion is like tasting champagne.
It is exciting, powerful, strong and it lasts a lifetime!
But if you quit you will never know how it feels, you will never taste the feeling of completion.
Only you have the power to decide!
It Is Not How Good You Are: It Is How Good You Are Going To Be
If you are a Martial Artist that has reached the level of black belt you know what I say is true.
A black belt is a white belt that never gave up.
Giving up is easy, losing hope is easy.
Living in hope takes effort, it takes time, it takes energy.
Now if you are currently on your journey I challenge you.
I challenge you to live in the hope that you will reach your goal, that you will become a black belt.
Because it is not about how good you are now it is about how good you are going to be.
But if you give up you will never know how good you could have been!
Keep training.
Thanks for reading