Easy adventures don’t make for great stories.
A good martial artist knows that growth is a mindset. Each person has nobishiro (伸びしろ) or “room for growth.” However, this growth or potential is something that we have to continually seek out - it doesn’t just fall into our laps. A martial artist understands this and that is why they are always chasing their limits - they want to see just how high they can go. In order to achieve our greatest heights and truly know our selves, a good martial artist ventures into places that are new, scary, or uncomfortable because they know that different is where growth occurs, and that sameness or comfort doesn’t inspire growth. Henry Ford said it best, “If you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got.” In a dojo, we learn this growth mindset as we try to become more and more skillful at the techniques. At the beginning level, the teacher demonstrates the technique, and we try to copy it. This is known as minarai keiko (見習い稽古) or “The practice of watching and copying.” Later on in our training, we have to learn to see the smallest details and “steal” the technique from the teacher. We must “steal” the technique because it is said that a teacher never teaches you the secrets but that you must “steal” it from them. In Japanese, “the practice of stealing the technique” is known as nusumi keiko (盗み稽古). To be able to see and eventually steal the technique, we have to develop our eye to “see” what is hidden in plain sight and we have to develop our ear to “hear” through the din of what is being said. Once we have sharpened our eyes and tuned our ears, we can turn our focus on improving other aspects of our lives and seek out greater and greater challenges. These greater challenges aren’t necessarily hard, but they also shouldn’t be easy or comfortable either. The only thing that matters is that it takes us out of our comfort zone. The greater the reward, the more difficult the challenge and the greater the story afterwards. The difficult or uncomfortable path is the one that is the most beneficial to our growth. This idea is expressed succinctly in the last line of Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken: “Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” In the martial arts and in life, there are no limits. The only limits which do exist reside in our minds. Therefore, we should continually seek out opportunities to take chances and take risks because those opportunities are what create the most growth and make for the greatest stories.
Today’s goal: “One must try, every day, to expand one's limits.” - Mas Oyama, Founder of Kyokyushinkai Karate