The best warriors are jisan (自賛) or “good a praising themselves.” Japan’s greatest swordsman, Miyamoto Musashi advocated, “Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.” One way to look at pleasure is from the standpoint of praise and compliments. Every once in a while, it is nice to get a bit of praise or receive compliments. However, we can also become addicted to the dopamine hit of praise and begin to live our lives searching for it. Once that happens, we become a slave to it and live our lives searching for it. Normal people are externally motivated. An externally motivated person searches for motivation or praise outside of themselves. If we search externally, we run the risk of coming up short when we don’t get the amount of praise that we were searching for. Most times when this happens, we double down on our efforts and try harder to get more and more praise. The problem with this type of thinking is that no matter how much praise we get, it will never be enough. A martial artist is not a normal person, and we are supposed to be internally motivated. An internally motivating person is supposed to be good at self-praise. Internal motivation is a closed loop system where nothing external is necessary to keep it going. Thus, through the highs and lows, we are able to self-motivate, self-reflect, and self-correct. Why this is important is because if we are able to do this then we cannot be swayed by things, people or events. This is the basis for true inner strength. Musashi also said, “Shinbutsu wo tattobite, shinbutsu wo tanomazu” (神仏を尊びて神仏を頼ず) which means, “Respect Buddha and Shinto gods, but do not ask them for anything.” We should respect all gods and all people, but not look to them for anything, especially praise. A normal person is constantly at the will of things, people, or events. Warriors are supposed to be steadfast and internally motivated and that’s why the best martial artists are good at self-praise.
Today’s goal: Don’t live your life for others. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake. Live your life for yourself.
Watch this video to better understand self-praise