The Commitment
Commitment is The Key
One of the things I hear repeatedly from people who USED to do martial arts is that when they would train, they would go (what they called) hardcore, and do full intensity, full contact, full body conditioning, etc, etc. And they end by saying, “When I do something, I want to do it all the way and commit, and not do anything less. Otherwise, I just don’t do it.” They wind up not following through on much because they obviously missed step one.
These same people usually feel the need to learn something new whenever they train in the martial arts. This immediately tells me, or anyone that understands the martial arts, that they haven’t developed an understanding of the concept of Mastery. To me, that is failing to understand what the true lesson of martial arts is.
Martial arts training centered around developing self-knowledge. This includes strategies of consistency & longevity. It’s about preservation. It’s about perseverance over the long term. It’s about discipline.
Just as we typically think of a lazy person who lacks motivation to do any work as someone who has no discipline, the person who is a workaholic is also one who lacks discipline. They lack the discipline to stop themselves, switch gears, and round themselves out so they don’t burn out.
Martial arts training definitely requires commitment. But how do you commit to something like the disciplines of the martial arts?
It’s called moderation. There are a few saying about moderation:
-Everything in moderation
-Moderation is the key to longevity
-There is such thing as too much of a good thing.
It’s all part of the way things work naturally in just about everything. Fast and intense beginnings tend to have very quick endings.
