the power of martial arts: being humble...

When faced with a challenge, there are two forces that can defeat you before you make the first move. The first is being controlled by fear. The second is over-confidence. In martial arts, the sense of being comfortable can allow you to put your guard down and to assume too much of the situation. This results in lazy thinking and inaction. Why the martial arts is such a great teaching tool it that this thinking is very easily corrected. And usually that process is a painful realization.

In Jung SuWon, breaking a board is a test of your discipline of technique and attitude. The first time in breaking a board, there is a lot of fear to overcome. The unknown if you will break it and what pain you will endure. With focus and discipline, the board would break effortlessly. So much so that I was shocked and surprise that it happened. This is also the seed of over-confidence. Your mind recognized the ease at which it took place and builds the confidence in your abilities. What started as an impossible task became simple. This is true in overcoming any challenge that overcome seemly effortlessly.

A few months later, I was tested to break two boards and then demonstrate some techniques. The techniques were difficult. Rather than thinking about breaking the boards, my mine was thinking of going through those new techniques. When it was time to break the boards, I remembered how easy it was to break. So instead of focusing on my technique and attitude, I was thinking of the next set of tasks. The shock, the surprise, and the pain I went when I slammed my hand against a hard wooden board. But that did not wake me up from my over-confidence. I must have just not hit it hard enough. Again I through my hand at the board. And again I was showered with pain and surprise. Now my hand really hurt. All eyes were on me wondering if I could break that board. I tried again to slam my hand against the board even harder, but my body refused to cooperate. In my mind I was going over how much it hurt and did not want to experience more. I held back on the next attempted to still achieve more pain with less results. Great Grandmaster Kim ask me to stop and breath. That break helped clear my mind. It did not matter what are my next techniques. My focus was on this board at this moment. I notice I had got emotional because the board did not break as I had planned. What should have been simple and become the critical and challenging part of my testing.

In acknowledge where my mind had gone, I started fresh as if it was the first time I was breaking a board. I reposition myself slightly, focusing on my target. Focus on my breath, be aware of my environment yet focused on the goal. With a loud Ki-yup, I struck and broke the board.

What prevented me from breaking that board was a lack of humility. If I had been humble and approached the breaking as a new challenge (which it is), I would not have been thinking of what was coming up next. I would not have assumed that it would break easily. I would have been aware of my technique and attitude. Without this humbleness you take things for granted and lack appreciation of the moment. Humbleness allows you to be flexible to plans without getting emotional when things don't go your way.

To be able to maintain that humble attitude not only allows overcoming obstacles in the Do Jang, but in other aspects of life. In relationships, were over time we get lazy and comfortable and start taking others for granted. In business were our success can blind us from learning new things. And in life, to achieve happiness, from the recognition and appreciation of the little things.