Fear… insecurity… panic… These are the feelings that can overtake you right before you choose. These are the things that make you tremble and seek an excuse to back away from the choice. These are the anchors that hold you “down to earth”. Can you feel them even now? Creeping up your spine and making you shrink from seeking a higher path. They are always with you. They whisper in your ear that the challenge will always overcome you. They tell you that people will laugh at you when you fail. You are looking out for your own best interests… but that mentality can be your worst enemy.
When I began teaching martial arts again after taking a long sabbatical for other things (like having kids and a “real” job), I started searching to find out what other instructors did to improve themselves and their students. The two things I heard all the time were “go to seminars” and “competition”. I took both of these to heart and started by attending a seminar for small circle Ju Jitsu in Houston, Texas. It wasn’t my primary (or even secondary) art, but people I respected were going and it would be a good learning experience for me. To be honest, I was a little nervous about attending. I wondered if people would see me as a good martial artist or just some fink trying to fit in. I had to spend some time in prayer and thought to get my heart right about that seminar. After I went, I realized that having a humble spirit and a learning attitude will put you in the right place with most people. I enjoyed the seminar and have been able to use some of the knowledge presented to improve my own skills and knowledge. Step one complete.
Step two was to start competing. This was completely nerve-wracking for me. The school where I received my first black belt was a non-competitive school. That isn’t to say that we didn’t spar or train in a way that would apply to competition, but we were not encouraged to compete. If we wanted to, we could go to a tournament and our instructor would help us prepare. But to my knowledge, no one ever did during my time there. My very first tournament experience was as a green belt in Shotokan Karate. It was not a particularly pleasant experience, but I will have to tell about that some other time. Fortunately, my second experience was better. One of the local dojangs invited me to bring some of my students for a fundraiser tournament just between our two schools. I chose to compete as well as coach, and I did fairly well. Now comes the real test. One of my students was highly interested in competition, and they found a large tournament that they wanted to attend. I researched the event and found out what the rule set and requirements were. After sweating about it for several weeks, I signed up to compete as well as coach my student. Then it hit me! All the negative thoughts you read in the first paragraph were right there in my head. They pulled at me and told me to withdraw. They drove me to distraction. You see, this was again an opportunity for me to choose humility and effort over pride and safety. I could choose to seek out a challenge or rest in my pride. Fortunately, God made it possible for me to choose the challenge. I’ll let you know how that turned out in some later post, but in the meantime, here is what I learned from making the choice to compete.
There will always be negative voices in our heads. Thoughts that make us want to stick with the easy route. There may even be people who encourage us to stay on the simple path and “stick with what you know”. However, if we will take a moment to quiet those voices, we have the opportunity to better ourselves, expand our horizons, and possibly succeed beyond our imaginations. Look around you today and see what challenges you might be able to choose. I encourage you to pick one (big or small) and start working your way toward it. Set some goals that seem just a little difficult, then step up to meet the challenge!