When do people quit most?

[aefibird]

and also once I stopped for a number of weeks it was very (very) difficult to motivate myself into going again. That self motivation gets worse the longer you stay out, what will your Sensei say, your other class-mates, etc. Very self-defeating.

That's true. I stopped going to my Wing Chun classes about this time last year - I had a few weeks off for holiday and also because I helped a friend move house. Then those weeks turned into months and I found it harder and harder to go back to training there. "what will Sifu think? He'll be upset that I haven't been for so long" was one of the things I thought - which only meant that I stayed away longer.

I eventually went back after a chance meeting with one of the other students at the cinema. he encouraged me to return and I was made very welcome, people seemed pleased that I was back, rather than just making me feel guilty or under pressure because I hasn't been for months. It was my stupid self and the idiotic thoughts that I had which kept me away; no one else was making me stay away and if I hadn't listened to myself and had just gone straight back to training after my holiday then I wouldn't have missed out on about 8-9 months of classes.

(as it is, I've had to stop going to that school anyway, for several reasons, but if I'd been going all the time then I wouldn't have missed out on so much training. Silly old me.)

[bushido_man96]

Here is an interesting article that I found about how martial arts practitioners go through certain cycles, and how they relate to quitting/changing styles.

Its a good read, and hope you enjoy it.

http://www.shotokai.com/ingles/essays/iao-western-alchemy-martial-arts.html