Finding the Gift of Living Masterfully

Developing real martial arts skill is not a quick-stick tack-on, but rather a deep-seep accumulation.
You have to learn good lessons and then repeat those over and over to make a part of you the new insights and ways of being.

Make a point of sharing with everyone who enrolls alongside you in your martial arts training hall your stories of how practice has shaped and sharpened your life. Encourage all newcomers to look beyond the minutes of each class to the months and years needed to cultivate the deepest benefits of your shared martial art practice.

As a seeker in a good and worthwhile martial arts dojo, you get to learn that:

  • Most things are achievable, if you clearly state your goal, hold to the belief that you are worthy of succeeding at that goal, and just refuse to give up. Sure, one person in millions might win a lottery, but success rarely floats down as a surprise gift. Progress in the personal development needed to blossom into the person you were meant to be takes work and time because you are changing who you are and how the world is.
  • What you enrolled for is not achieved in a class — or even a month of classes. The real power of martial arts training emerges when approached as a life-practice. Vibrant well-being is not derived from a single careful meal each week. Health restorative benefits of sleep are not achieved with one good night of deep, restful sleep on a weekend. Yes, you can certainly attend a few classes in the dojo to check out how it feels to train, but once committed training seriously begins, you must understand that nothing happens without long-term consistent focused effort.
  • The most valuable lessons learned from years of martial arts practice are not immediately obvious. A powerful deep knowing, way under the surface and so hard to name and define before you get there and experience it, builds with sincere life-long practice of the martial arts. In a worthwhile martial arts school, you not only become a master of your martial technique, you become a master of living fully and authentically.
  • And… This study’s benefits are way broader and deeper than you ever imagined when first enrolling.

3 comments to “Finding the Gift of Living Masterfully”

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  1. Awesome. I hope you don’t mind if I paste this onto a Word document for future reference. Thanks, An-shu.

  2. Randy Hutchinson says: -#1

    A never ending journey and everyday is another challenge to me whereby i become stronger achieving in myself what others cannot perceive. Thanks again An-shu Hayes.

  3. I know i am new here but i hope you don’t mind if i post about my experience so far in Martial arts in general.I think the best lessons i have gotten from training so far is discipline, patience and control. Eventually you realize that it’s rare to ever need your fists to settle a situation.

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