“Without mountains, we might find ourselves relieved that we can avoid the pain of the ascent, but we will forever miss the thrill of the summit. And in such a terribly scandalous trade-off,
it is the absence of pain that becomes the thief of life.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
The best martial artist sets no limits. What are you capable of? The normal person has all of these hadome (歯止め) or “self-imposed limits.” A person who studies a martial art is not normal and so they are searching for the outermost limits of what they can do. Thus, to study a martial art is really to study the self and that’s why a martial art is a do (道) or “a way of life.” Martial arts are supposed to be a journey and not a destination but all paths lead somewhere. That somewhere that our journey is leading to is our true selves. Our true self is who we were before we were told that we could not be who we are or achieve what we wanted to achieve. When we study a martial art, we find things that we want to achieve or skills that we want to acquire. The normal person sees something difficult or complicated and thinks, “I can’t do that.” A martial artist sees the same things but thinks, “I can’t do that, yet.” Through time and experience, training teaches us that surmounting obstacles is how we uncover our true selves. Along the way, we find out not only what we are made of, but we also realize that we have infinitely more power than we ever imagined. That is why Morihei Ueshiba believed in masakatsu agatsu (正勝吾勝) or that “the true victory is self victory.” In the martial arts and in life, we are really only held back by two things: fear and the beliefs that what we were conditioned to believe are true. When we challenge those self-limiting beliefs, we realize that most, if not all, were not true at all. How do we challenge them? We challenge them by not giving up when things get hard or seem impossible. It is only by challenging our limits that we see who we really are, what we are made of, and what we can do. Thus, the road to figuring out who we are and what we can do is really just a mind game. Former Navy SEAL, David Goggins came up with the 40% Rule which states, “When our mind is telling us to quit, our body has actually only used up 40% of its potential.” What Goggins is saying is that we quit because we talked ourselves into believing that this is was the end and that we can go no farther. Goggins assertion aligns with the Japanese saying: Sanchunozoku wo yaburu hayasukushinchunozoku wo yaburuhakatashi (山中の賊を破るは易く心中の賊を破るは難し) or "Defeating the bandits in the mountains is easy; defeating the bandit in one's mind is harder.” Novelist James Lane Allen said, “Adversity does not build character—it reveals it. How far can you go? Only as far as you push yourself. Where should you go? Only to the places that scare you. The best martial artists set no limits because they have realized that there are no real limits.
Today’s goal: Wherever you don’t want to go is where you probably should go.
Watch this video to better understand self-limiting beliefs