Aiki Dojo Message - Be Hungry
The best martial artists are hungry. In a martial arts sense, to be hungry means that one has a strong desire or craving to learn something. On a certain level, it is the teacher’s job to feed that hunger or starve it. Starve it? Yes, some students need to be fed while others need to be starved to create hunger. Sometimes, deprivation, and the hunger it creates, enables some people to flourish. Matcha green tea is that way. The secret power of green tea lies in how well you deprive it of sunlight when it is growing. Matcha is specially produced using only pure Gyokuro tea leaves. Somehow, shading the green tea bush from sunlight forces it to produce higher concentrations of chlorophyll which increases the tea’s antioxidant concentration and gives green tea all of its health benefits. Students can be like that too. Every student has potential but because some students are unaware of it. Because they are unaware of their vast potential, they don’t know how to be “hungry.” Thus, the teacher may have to deprive them just enough to create a desire to improve. From this point of view, starvation is beneficial and can bring about something much better than if it was not deprived. Some things we have to feed while other things need to be starved. The trick is in knowing when to feed or when to deprive. The interesting thing is that it is actually not up to the teacher at all. Whether one is being fed or starved is up to the student and how they perceive their training. As we get older, we realize that everything that has happened to us, good and bad, has made us who we are. We could not have become who we are if it was any other way. Sometimes, we need to “starve” so that we can realize our true potential. Being hungry or not getting what we want can create the desire to work harder and that’s why the best martial artists are always hungry.
Today’s goal: What can you deprive yourself of to make yourself better?
Watch this video of Berton Braley's poem The Will to Win