“It is said that one should not hesitate to correct himself when he has made a mistake. If he corrects himself without the least bit of delay, his mistakes will disappear.” - Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure
A good martial artist makes mistakes wisely. It is said that there is only one type of person who doesn’t make mistakes: Liars. Martial artists are supposed to be honorable and not lie, cheat, or steal. We are human beings and humans by design are not perfect and thus apt to make mistakes. We have to make mistakes from time to time to remind us that we are not in fact perfect and keep our egos in check. We also should want to make mistakes because they shows us where we need to put in the work. One way of saying “mistake” in Japanese is misu (ミス). Misu is borrowed from the English word “miss” and is japanized to the Japanese language. Miss implies that we fail to hit the target or in other words we make a mistake and fail to be the person that we are striving to be. A martial artist is a person who strives for perfection, and they know that perfection is a journey and not a destination. In class, around half of the time, we are on the “receiving” end of the technique or taking ukemi (受身). Ukemi is the art of gracefully recovering from a fall. When we take ukemi, we are on the mistake side of the technique. We have committed the mistaken act of attacking another person. Our partner takes our blunder and turns it into a technique to their advantage. Obviously that technique is designed to hurt us but in the course of our training, we learn to fall in a way that minimizes the damage to our bodies - we make the mistake wisely. A mistake is only a mistake if we don’t learn from it. A martial artist does their best to learn from their mistakes. Hence, the act of learning from our mistakes enables us to make them wisely. Nobody is perfect. Perfection is a journey. If it is a journey then, from time to time, there will be bumps in the road. Sometimes, we might stumble or even fall down. What really defines us is not the mistake but how we recover from it. Life is a process of falling down, learning, getting back up, dusting ourselves off, and trying to do better the next time. In Japanese, this process could be best summed up by the proverb nana korobi ya oki (七転び八起き) or “To fall down seven times, but get up eight.” In the martial arts and in life, a mistake is only a mistake if we do not learn from it. A good martial artist knows this and that’s why they learn to make mistakes wisely.
Today’s goal: Tread lightly and go easy on yourself. You’re not perfect so just learn from your mistakes and do better next time.
Watch this video to better understand learning from your mistakes.