塵も積もれば山となる
Chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru
Even specks of dust if piled up can become mountains.
The best martial artists have a suburi mindset. In swordsmanship, practicing the “overhead cut” or kirioroshi (切り下ろす) is called suburi (素振り). Actually, any type of swinging practice with a tennis racket or baseball bat is called suburi. In swordsmanship, we are all trying to develop a cut that is effortless but at the same time still effective, and powerful. To achieve this, we need to put in the reps or in other words, practice our suburi. We have to do our suburi because like all martial arts techniques, our cut is a perishable skill. In other words, it is ephemeral so if we don’t use it, we lose it. In swordsmanship, they say that your cut is only perfected “cut after cut” which implies that we have to be willing to put in the work to make it good. In the 1980s, there was a series of commercials for Dunkin Donuts featuring Fred the Baker. Each commercial was some aspect of Fred tiredly waking up before dawn and muttering to himself, "Time to make the donuts.” The commercial was implying that to get a quality product, you have put in the effort. If Fred doesn’t wake up and do his work, then we can’t enjoy his delicious and fresh donuts. In the martial arts it is the same. In order to be good, we have to wake up every morning and say, “Time to do suburi.” Muttering this mantra to ourselves when we first wake up and as a reminder throughout the day, helps us to get into a mindset of self-development. Interestingly, when we change the kanji pronunciation from suburi to sobori, it means “behavior” or “attitude” and thus we can see that suburi is really a mindset. Those that are willing to do suburi will get good. Every day we are standing on the precipice of change. Either we let ourselves deteriorate or we discipline ourselves to improve. Focusing on suburi as a mindset enables us to put in the work. If we want to lose weight, then not eating a donut is suburi. If we want to improve our ukemi, then coming to class early to work on it is suburi. If we want to buy a house, not wasting money on Starbucks is suburi. In the martial arts, we don’t improve by leaps and bounds but by small incremental changes or in other words, only cut after cut. The Japanese say, chiri mo tsumoreba yama to naru (塵も積もれば山となる) or “Even specks of dust if piled up can become mountains.” Understanding this, “time to do suburi” is a mantra that reminds us that battles are won by the little things that we do and not by grandiose gestures and thus specks of dust can become mountains. Saying to ourselves, “time to do suburi” helps to remind us to stay in the suburi mindset and focuses us to put in the work to achieve whatever it is we want.
Today’s goal: Come up with your own mantra that resonates with you and helps you stay on track. Mine is “brick by brick.”