Pushing to Your Limit
Training notes- Meditation Point #128
- You never know how a horse will pull until you hook him up to a heavy load.
- Paul “Bear” Bryant, I Ain’t Never Been Nothing but a Winner
In every sport is important to push yourself. In many sports the structure includes a coach or team members who serve as motivation for you to do your best and push beyond your prescieved limits. In the Martial Arts we typically compete with ourselves for advancement and ability. While our Sensei or fellow students may push us most of our practice time is done in solidarity of the group. Unfortunately many do not reach their full potential since few are truely capable of motivating themselves. But that is what we must do. Over the years, I have worked with self-motivated students and those who are not. The self-motivated student is a blessing, and will often challange the instructor to find new ways to keep them advancing. However, even self-motivated students will reach what they feel is their limit, often getting them to break through that limit requires hard tactics. This is not something you can just start doing, you need to slowly increase the challenges you give your students and if self-taught yourself. It is like the lobster in the boiling water, if you turn the temp up gradually they don’t realize what is happening!
A Sensei must read his students and learn how quickly he can push. This task is a little trickier if you are working alone, here the trick is to not think but do. Thinking can limit your potential, what you need to do is plan in very small increments, you want to be like the lobster, slowly increasing your tasks so you don’t dishearten yourself. Eventually you, either alone or as part of a group will find your natural limits and with training learn how to press yourself beyond them when necessary.
Press on realistically and steadily. Train hard, Train often!!
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I am ashamed to realize I quite often am that non-self-motivated student. While in class I find that I respond well to the Sensei’s “pushing” and instruction but quite often let that motivation fizzle out during the week. I guess I will need to start visualizing myself as a yummy lobster – (or maybe as a motivational tool when I acheive my next goal I will treat myself to a lobster dinner 🙂 ) Thanks for always finding a way to motivate even the laziest student like myself!
I am ashamed to realize I quite often am that non-self-motivated student. While in class I find that I respond well to the Sensei’s “pushing” and instruction but quite often let that motivation fizzle out during the week. I guess I will need to start visualizing myself as a yummy lobster – (or maybe as a motivational tool when I acheive my next goal I will treat myself to a lobster dinner 🙂 ) Thanks for always finding a way to motivate even the laziest student like myself!
Great post! Very motivating!
Great post! Very motivating!