The Best Sensei of All

[AnonymousOne]

The Best Sensei of All

So there you standing lined up in the dojo once again. Your muscles are sore. Your body is weak, you are exhausted, drained, and mentally unfocused.

But despite those conditions, deep within you lies a burning desire. Your dreams of being a first rate Karate-Ka overwhelm any temporary hardships you face. The lesson starts and you perform your tasks with a great sense of passion and confidence. All this, because you train under the best Sensei of all.

The human mind is capable of all sorts of things. Its untapped resources have barely been tapped. In the last 150 years, man has gone from horse and buggy to space flight. We, as humans, broke the 4 minute mile and surpassed the sound barrier. We have climbed the highest mountain and continue to shatter records in every field of endeavour.

But what of you? What are your dreams? We are in the martial arts. Whenever I have asked a student, “Would you like to be a true Karate master? Would you like to equal or surpass your countries top teacher?”

Many say “Oh yes I sure would. I would love to be that good. But I don’t think I could achieve that”.

What a sorry state the human spirit becomes when inflicting self doubt on our destinies. Self doubt is the biggest obstacle us humans face. It’s a wall we cannot climb, its sea we cannot swim. The reasons we suffer (and I say suffer because we do), from self doubt is something that is very personal to each of us. Our psychologist friends tell us that it comes from our child hood and I personally think that may well be a contributing factor. Maybe our parents were not very encouraging or maybe put us down. Maybe we failed at school and we limit ourselves by worrying we may fail again. Self doubt can come from worrying what other people may think of us. Peers put us down, criticise us or even shun us when we don’t conform to standards in the circles we run around in. Self doubt comes from many internal and external sources.

Until we deal squarely with self doubt we are never going to get that rocket off the ground. You have to examine the sources in your life that cause you to have self doubt. This may take a little soul searching.

Self doubt is also often caused by a poor self image. You look at yourself at a lower level than your hero’s. They are up there and you have placed yourself down there. However your very hero’s were born into this world with much the same brain. The only difference is that they had different programming. I have always likened a child's mind to a tape recorder. What a parent plays into it, what society plays into it, will play back sooner or later in life. If negative input has gone in, then negative input comes out. We need to go back and re-record some of the negative influences that have been placed into our brains. There are many different ways you can do this. However I am a great believer in self talk. Write down on a 3 x 5 card positive thoughts such as “I am a winner”… “I achieve goals because I work on them daily”… “I can do anything and I am equal to any other human”.. “I want this ____ goal because it inspires me into great action”… “I have faith, courage and enthusiasm. I am unstoppable”. Keep those cards in your wallet or purse and read every 3 hours. Reprogram your mind with new data. For further research on this look up “Auto Suggestion”. It’s powerful stuff. Clean the brain of unwanted negative clutter!!

While you are doing this daily, you need to employ a new Sensei. I did not say get rid of the old one, I said employ a new one.

This new Sensei has your dreams and desires close to his or her heart. This new Sensei understands your problems, frustrations, goals, dreams and desires more than anyone else. This new Sensei will drive you further, faster and longer than anyone else you have ever encountered.

But your new Sensei first of all needs to know exactly what your goals, dreams and aspirations are. So you need to get serious, deadly serious. So sit down with your new Sensei and have a heart to heart talk with them. Take away from your mind any thoughts of obstacles and ask yourself this question.. “If I had no obstacles, how far would I go in Karate? Exactly how good do I “honestly” want to be? What is a goal in Karate, that really turns me on and inspires my heart to soar with exhilaration, motivation and enthusiasm?”.

Forget about self doubt. Forget about obstacles. Drop the excuses. What exactly do you “honestly” want from this great and noble martial art called Karate? Do you honestly want to be mediocre? Just get by? Just scrape through your grades? Just be average in your class? Anyone can do all that, but what do you want?

Who told you that you have to be average? And why did you buy that story? Because it was the easy way out?

Let me ask you… if there was a magic pill that you could take that would instantly make you a world renowned Karate master, would you take it? … Be honest!!

So by asking you this I can see already you have a desire for greatness, but the truth of the matter is you are lazy and you are a liar to yourself! You want to be great, for whatever personal reasons you have, but you just don’t want to put the effort in. How do I know this? Because just read your mind about the pill question!!

Maybe this dream slips you by because of self doubt, or maybe laziness. Maybe you have majored in Excuseology. But for whatever reason you have, you need to cut that crap and realise you lurking within you is a sleeping giant.

The Bible says:

Proverbs 6:6 GO TO THE ANT, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 6:7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 6:8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. 6:9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep?

… When will you get up from your sleep O Karate-ka?

There is nothing and no one stopping you from achieving your dreams, but you. That’s right, YOU the person in the mirror, are the biggest obstacle you face. It is the decisions that you make today and continue to make everyday, that will determine and steer your destiny.

But fear not, because you can change and you can change so much that you will be diametrically opposite to what you were before. I don’t mean just physically, but mentally. I would highly recommend that you spend some of that cash you waste on so many of those trivial things you don’t really need, (yes you know what they are) and spend the money on some good motivational books and audio tapes. Feed your brain with new positive data.

So there you are finally with a new goal. You are feeling excited for the first time and taking the first important step and that is knowing exactly where you want to go. Not only do you need to know where you want to go, but why. You need to clearly understand the reasons for your motivation and get involved in the emotional side of a goal as well as the logic. Emotion is a powerful tool. Imagine yourself in possession of the goal. How does that make you feel? Take 15 minutes everyday and lie down, close your eyes and imagine yourself having that goal.

I still do this today. When I first learnt this concept years ago, I used to imagine what my technique would look like. How fast I would be, how powerful I would be. How dynamically I would perform Kata etc. Little did I realise I would far surpass my wildest dreams and it all started with an emotional thought pattern controlled and steered toward my personal desires in the martial arts. Ya gotta have goals!!

So now you have a written goal and now understand all the emotional and logical reasons for achieving them. Keep your goals between yourself and the person in the mirror. Don’t give some negative person a chance to derail your dreams while the egg hasn’t hatched yet. This is deeply personal and only you can understand it. Many great ideas die at birth because some stupid negative person makes some silly comment and puts you off. Don’t let that happen. Remember also that mediocre people do not want you to have what they cannot have or are too lazy to have. They want you down there with them. They don’t want you to rise above the clouds far away from them. They want you to wallow in the quagmire of mediocrity where they live, because they are too lazy and uninspired to reach for greatness. But you are above that because you now have a powerful inspiring goal.

So you have your plans and hopes laid out before you. Now you need to deal with your new Sensei. Oh I forgot to mention, your new Sensei is you!!

Because you have taken the important step in classifying, and clarifying your goals, you are now qualified to employ yourself as your own (additional) Sensei. As your skills, mental toughness and abilities grow, you will soon learn that no one can drive you as hard as yourself. How do I know this?

Forty one years of driving myself. I have experimented on myself this concept. Once you have your goals clearly defined and understood and the deep desire and inspiration is there, there wont be a teacher on the face of this earth that will make you train and study as much as yourself. Your current Sensei is not emotionally involved in your goal as you are. As nice and as kind as they may be, it’s not the same. They will not be living your goal, you will be. You have a personal interest in achieving and surpassing yours goals, they don’t. Teachers come and go, but you are there for life.

So now you have to set a work plan for the achievement of your goal. First you need to understand where you are now. What are you physically capable of doing?

You need to set up a weekly training schedule. First you need to determine how much time you have available in the pursuit of excellence. Of course pursuing your goals is going to take a great deal of your time. You have make sacrifices of your time. You have to know how badly you want that goal before you start and pay the price to achieve them or face failure. How badly do you want to succeed? Pay the price!

Obviously I cannot outlay here for you a personalised training schedule. When you are writing it out (yes in writing!), you need to take into account the following:

You need a balanced training program including:

Training in basics

Training in Kata

Training in Kumite

Strength training

Aerobic development

Anaerobic development

Equipment training - bags, mitts, makiwara etc

Balance training

Agility training

Flexibility

Reaction time development

Correct diet

Knowledge development by personal study

Motivational support programs (books, tapes, etc)

Somewhere to self train

This is not all inclusive and you may feel you need other things as well and that’s great.

Years ago, my first goal was to do 3 times as much training as anyone else in my local dojo. I was only 17 and living with my parents. My father allowed me to make extra room in our garage and allowed me to mount makiwara’s, bags and other things all over the property. The neighbours thought I had gone crazy. Many may think you have gone nuts, but one thing is proven, they will never fight you over it Haha!! Don’t worry about it, your goals are more important than neighbours gossip right?

The best method I can think of for self training is to set a dojo like environment. I, for the last 30 years have used audio tapes to do this. I simply record lessons on audio tape to the count and follow along just as if I was in the actual dojo. I bow, yell “Hai”, kiai and do it exactly as if the piercing eyes of my brutal Sensei were actually there.

Make one rule with your tapes. “If the lesson starts, come hell or high water, I will complete it, even if I have to crawl to my bed afterwards”.

With practise you can get yourself into the mindset that you are actually in a real dojo. In our school the dojo is cleaned, everything except the roof, after each lesson and that I do also. I never let an exception occur to derail my training integrity. To oneself always be true is my motto in this regard.

Making tapes I find is a lot of fun. These days I make mp3’s and use a computer to drive the audio sound in my home dojo. I am continually attempting to make myself do more work and perform more powerfully and faster. As your physical skills and endurance grows so does your mental toughness in completing the tasks at hand. The more you grow, the more determined and motivated you become. I have seen people come and train with me or watch me train and they say I am insane with what I make myself do. I just laugh because it’s a compliment to me. Doing the difficult will always separate you from the crowd.

The Warriors Creed

I will train with the utmost intensity, dedication and desire

I will turn obstacles into opportunities to demonstrate my power and strength

No feat is beyond my reach, I will write my own destiny

To hell with genetics, I will determine my physical prowess and strength

I am an action taker not an action faker

I am a leader not a follower

There are no magic pills. My strength and power originate from my intensity and devotion

There are no shortcuts to the top. The Warrior’s journey is never ending. I will surge forward, improving myself each day.

I will rise to the top, overcome all obstacles, and destroy my internal and external enemies.

Excuses are weak, Warriors are strong. I am a Warrior!!

[Mr. Mike]

wow...what can I say after that? Very nice indeed.

[italian_guy]

Good post! (basically an article) Self-motivation is a grat power. I use it frequently and it helps me training in a dojo where I'm the oldest by far and the one with the most physical limitations... even if I consider myself one of the most devoted and motivated students, and yes.. I sustain myself with self-motivation.

[Mith]

I really enjoyed that and it helped me as I have been doubting myself lately.

Thank you... I will write my own destiny!

[Kieran-Lilith]

Awesome...note to self: Do not listen to idiot green belt who says I'm screwing up when Sensei just said I had it right....

[Highler]

An excellent read, very inspiring

[radicalspiegal]

Very nice indeed.

-Bran

" A blackbelt is just a white belt who never quit." Sr. Grandmaster Ed Parker.

[osuperu]

Great post...thats the one thing that will kill me...self doubt..and im trying everyday to over come it

loved the quote: "To hell with genetics, I will determine my physical prowess and strength"

yes...to hell with genetics

[Master Jules]

Great post !