- “Come on, Sami! GET UP! ONE MORE!!! DON’T QUIT!” - says Sami’s Karate Sensei as Sami lies on the ground hyperventilating.
- “You can’t do it. You’ll never make it. Give up already. You are not as good as the others anyway. You are just a white belt noob. Who do you think you’re kidding, man?” - uninvited, Sami’s brain replies.
- “STFU! YES I CAN! WATCH ME! GET OUT OF MY WAY, BRAIN!” - Sami’s body feels like it’s going to give out soon and yet somehow manages to pull through and do the exercise/stretch/punch/kick through SHEER WILLPOWER.
Damn son. I didn’t know my brain could limit me and at the same time push me towards my goals. Powerful epiphany. Take some time to think about it.
You can use your brain in any way you want to. You can choose to let it limit you and make excuses or you can change your limiting beliefs, push through and tell friggin Obstacle Mountain to get out of the damn way, so you can achieve your goals.
A typical Karate session goes like this: me being exhausted, sweaty, hyperventilating and about to give up; to me doing it and surprising myself with how I was able to!
The benefits of Karate go far beyond the time you spend in the dojo. This is something I realized after a month of attending Karate classes. An hour of training does not just make you a better fighter and increase your flexibility, agility and strength; it makes you a stronger and more confident human being, i.e:
Karate (and other martial arts) make you a better person.
A bold claim to make, isn’t it?
Let me explain why.
Martial arts is more than just learning a few kicks, punches and throws. Martial arts is about bringing out the strength, power and confidence that lay dormant inside each and every one of us, and have been eager to come out and show you (and the world) how amazing and powerful you really are. Karate teaches pacifism. Not aggression.
Seems like a paradox, in it?!
Karate is a combat sport afterall. If executed with enough force, a karate punch or a kick could actually kill your opponent. So, karate gives you the ability to kill. However, with the ability to kill comes the responsibility to protect others (even those who try to hurt you).
If an attacker were to approach you with a knife or a gun, karate doesn’t teach you to hurt them, but to disarm them and disengage them from combat by knocking the murder weapon out of their hands and demobilizing them through a body lock, kick or punch so that you minimize harm to not only yourself but to them as well.
Which leads me to the first thing that I learned from Karate:
1) SELF-CONTROL
You might acquire superhuman strength, but that doesn’t make you powerful.
What determines a person’s strength is not their power, but their self-control and their ability to respond with the right amount of force (which could mean no force at all) in any given situation.
In the case of physical assault, sometimes a physical response is necessary to protect yourself. A good punch or knockout kick in the face is usually enough to disarm an attacker. Karate can teach you how to do that very well! :D
However, sometimes by avoiding a confrontation and not responding to taunts/slander you have already won the fight, i.e. you used less force than the person who tried to taunt you. Let them wear themselves out with all the BS they are throwing your way and saying about you. Remember that when they point a finger at you, they have four fingers pointing back at them. Everything they say and do will go back to them, call it karma, God, destiny whatever. Usually what they are saying about you is actually what they think about themselves.
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