You ever wonder why the drop-out rate amongst martial arts students is so high? Is it because the training is hard? Is it because it is repetitive and at times hard to enjoy? Is it because students realise that they really want to be doing something else? Or do they quit when their dreams of being like Bruce Lee after three months training don’t materialise?
The Value of Persistence
Most likely all of these things play a part in the high drop-out rate but in my opinion, the reason that most people quit is because they lack persistence. They fail to see that success can be theirs if they just stick at it but often times, their perceived lack of progress and absence of faith in the learning process and the ways of the universe make it all too easy for them to become pessimistic about what they are doing and their once strong resolve caves in under the pressure of all that negativity and of course they quit.
To succeed in anything you have to be persistent and tell yourself that you are not going to give up until you do succeed. It is essential to have the right mindset or else your inner opponent will systematically destroy any hope you have of ever reaching your goal by filling your mind with negative thoughts and emotions. Once these destructive thought patterns take hold it is very difficult to see past them and sooner rather than later they will fulfill their promise of making you quit something that you once optimistically thought you would succeed in.
Many student drop-outs would have succeeded if they had just hung in there a little longer. If they had realised that success was closer than they initially thought they would maybe have persisted a little longer and got to where they once so badly wanted to be.
The Tipping Point
I’m sure you have heard of “the tipping point”. The tipping point is a phrase created by Malcolm Gladwell in his book of same name. Tipping points are “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.” One never knows when one is going to reach this point, it could happen anytime, so it is best to keep going, knowing that the tipping point will happen eventually, it’s just a matter of time. All other factors discounted, sheer persistence will usually get you to where you want to be. It’s how most martial artists make it to black belt level or master a kata or get good enough to win a competition, they just put the time in.
Consider this example. A person could practice a technique 99 times and still not get it right so they decide to quit trying and they walk away having failed in their quest to master that technique. However, unknown to that person, they had reached the tipping point, that fine line dividing success and failure and if they had just practiced that technique one more time they would have gotten it right. Just one more time was all it would have took. But that person would never know this because they had quit too soon.
It is also essential to realise that the 99 times you did do the technique are what brought you to success in the first place. The tipping point couldn’t have occurred without first practicing all those times beforehand and what made you practice all those times beforehand was persistence.
So we never know when the tipping point is going to be but we know it is going to be at some point, so it makes sense to carry on in good faith, knowing that success will happen eventually.
Looking Down the Mountain
Not to get too clichéd here, but success is very much like climbing a mountain. I’ve never climbed Everest but I imagine the climb would be tough going and many times during the assent I would feel like giving up before I got to the top.
At this point it would be beneficial to ignore the advice to not look down and to turn your head and take a good long look at just how far you’ve come in your journey. We quite often get so caught up in striving towards our goals that we miss just how much progress we have already made.
So if you’re training towards some goal in the martial arts and you’re thinking that you are never going to get there, it really helps to pause and look back over your journey so far. I think you’d be surprised at how much progress you’ve actually made. Give yourself some credit for getting as far as you have. Doing so really helps to motivate you into carrying on.
It’s been a year since I started on my journey to become a better and more successful person and several times throughout the year I have thought about giving up because I didn’t think I was making any progress. I sometimes found the soul destroying feeling that I wasn’t making any headway despite working at maximum effort hard to handle. It wasn’t until I took the time to look “down the mountain” to see just how far I’d come that I started to appreciate the progress that I had made so far.
In the past year I have went from having no life goals to having life goals that I have either attained or am working towards attaining.
I began writing again and started this blog. So far I have published almost 100 articles online, gotten published in three different mainstream martial arts magazines and published two e-books that people seem to like.
I have also recommitted to my martial arts and have come on leaps and bounds in my training. On top of that my understanding of them have increased greatly and I can consider myself somewhat of an authority on the martial arts now.
As well as that I will also be receiving personal training from Geoff Thompson in the New Year, one of the world’s top martial artists and the man who gave me the kick up the ass I needed- through his books- to get my act together.
My personal and spiritual development is also coming along swimmingly and I feel that I’m a far more positive and motivated person than I was this time last year. I see potential in myself now that I never saw before and I feel more connected to myself and the universe at large than I have ever been.
Most importantly I have realised that I know longer need to define myself by what I have or what I have achieved, but by what I am, and what I am is a manifestation of the creative Source that makes up this universe of ours. I am Source energy manifested in a physical body and my life revolves around maintaining my connection with that Source. That is my number one priority now, to be completely at one with the Source of all things and to use my talents and innate desires to help other people as much as I can because I know that is the only way to live authentically, the only way to succeed in life. This is my spiritual breakthrough, the one I have been seeking my entire life. Now I just have to live it and that’s what I’m working on doing everyday now.
Less than a year ago, I would never have thought I could achieve so much. It would have been foolhardy of me to quit at any of the times I thought about doing so.
Don’t Give Up Your Dreams
That’s why I’m saying to you now, don’t give up on trying to achieve your goals. I recognise that it is sometimes a great strain to carry on in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds but as I stated in a previous article, these obstacles are character building and give you the inner strength to handle the success when you get it.
So the next time you feel like you are not making any progress in your training, or indeed in the achievement of any goal that you have set for yourself, take the time to look back and to see how much you have achieved already. Sometimes this retrospective look over your shoulder can be enough to rekindle your motivation. If it isn’t then remember the tipping point. Success could just be around the corner. Tomorrow or the next day or the day after that could be the day that everything falls into place and you get the breakthrough that you need to propel you into success.
Your dreams are there for the taking but you have to take them.
Further Resources
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
The Secret of Success is Not a Secret: Stories of Famous People Who Persevered
