Discover your source of motivation

In this month’s Shimbun magazine, Tony Croft tells us that “Excess doesn’t always lead to success”, by which he means that going mad in the heat of inspiration is not the way to achieve your goals – you need a more measured approach.

I see it all the time when students start training; they train double lessons, then they go to two doubles, then they grade and train five times a week, then after three months, they’re burned out and they quit. Their sensei and fellow students stand around scratching their heads saying, “What happened – he seemed so promising?”

The truth is, the student lost the early glow of newness, and the sense of rapid achievement. Karate is all very exciting when it’s new, and then within 3 months you grade and it stays exciting for a while, then you gradually come to realise that there’s a lot of work and a lot of repetition, and the unprepared student falls by the wayside and loses enthusiasm.

However, it doesn’t need to be like that. I think that becoming successful at martial arts is all about motivation. You may do something at the beginning in a rush of inspiration, but you need the mental strength and self knowledge to keep going beyond that excitement – you need a source of motivation.

As you get older, and more mature, you might discover that pursuit of excellence is motivation enough. However, more realistically, you’ll need additional, and even multiple sources of motivation. For many students, their next belt provides short-term motivation. More constructively, a black belt is a good source of motivation because it’s not quickly achievable. My sensei, Jason Smith says that when setting goals, choose targets that are not too easy, or they don’t challenge you to extend yourself.

Other sources of motivation may be tournament success, to help others, to feel secure, to develop fitness, or to regain lost self-esteem.

For most people, you may need or use more than one source of motivation. For me, my motivations change at different times. Around tournament time, I work to improve my tournament skills, or learn from defeats I may have experienced. After seminars, my motivation is to adopt as many of the newly learned skills as possible. My overall goal is to reach at least 3^rd dan, which will likely keep me occupied for at least another ten years. Sometimes my motivation is to exceed the capabilities of my peers – lasting longer, training harder, punching faster, getting fitter. Other times I aspire to do the very best I can for the sake of my students, so that I can be a worthy role model and guide on their journeys.

It’s very important to take pleasure and satisfaction from the small things – enjoy the journey instead of constantly looking forward to the destination. Sometimes I do a particularly snappy hip or wrist twist, or maybe I deliver a great counter-attack, or I move into stance really positively. All of these things and thousands more, give me small amounts of pleasure, and by taking pleasure in these things, the journey becomes more important than the destination. That’s why they say that karate changes you. It’s not just about the physical things; it’s about the disciplines and the changes in attitude that come with it. You learn to know yourself, and in so doing, you grow as a person.