When I first started blogging not too long ago I knew next to nothing about it. In fact I felt a bit daunted, not to say overwhelmed by the sheer size of the learning curve ahead of me (as I was when I first started martial arts as well). I was excited by it though because it was something I really wanted to do and I was going to make sure I did everything I could possibly do in order to succeed at it.
So I threw myself into the world of blogging head first and I lived and breathed it for a few months (I still do, in fact) until I felt I had at least picked up the basics, which I have now. A few months down the line and here I am, a fully-fledged blogger with admittedly, still a lot to learn, but I have come very far from the place of unknowing where I was once at.
Whatever success in blogging I have achieved up to this point I can put down to one simple concept, and that concept is one called immersion, the act of throwing yourself completely into something for a period of time until you have gained sufficient knowledge and understanding of your subject, or at least until you have advanced considerably from the position of blissful ignorance you were once at.
Most people, when they start something new tend to dabble in what they are doing, dipping in and out as they please. The majority of people who do martial arts are dabblers, not serious practitioners. The thing is, these people expect to be experts within a year, training twice a week and then forgetting about everything they have learned in between times.
The fact is you will learn almost nothing if you take this approach, especially in something like martial arts, were the learning curve is very steep. I’d even go so far as to say that you are wasting your time if you are only going to treat martial arts as a hobby because nothing is going to sink in far enough for you to really understand it, to really know it inside out.
I have spent periods of my training career just dabbling, turning up for practice, going through the motions and then going home and forgetting about what I’ve learned until the next session. After months of this I used to wonder why I wasn’t making any forward progress. Then I realised all I was doing was at best, simply maintaining the skills I already had. I basically wasn’t training enough or committing myself enough to gain any real advances.
Put simply, if you want to be the best martial artist you can be (and that’s all any of us should expect from ourselves) then you have to really commit to the art you have chosen to partake in. And by commit, I mean not just training as much as possible, but thoroughly making martial arts a part of your life. You must make it a part of you. When you’re not training you should be thinking about training. This is the only way to get good at anything. You have to immerse yourself in it and if that sounds like a step too far to you then perhaps you shouldn’t be training at all.
Now, I say immerse, I didn’t say drown. You can drown in something if you get overly obsessed with it. When you start doing something to the exclusion of all else in your life then that is obsession and nine times out of ten such behaviour is actually counter productive to what you are trying to achieve. Fair enough if you have nothing else in your life and you can get away with devoting yourself completely to it, but few of us have lives that are that devoid of anything else. We have families, friends, jobs etc. that we have to devote time to as well. It’s the time you have left and the time you manage to create for following your endeavour that matters, and what matters even more is how you spend that time.
Too often when we have a bit of time on our hands we tend to idle it away or waste it altogether doing things that are not advancing us towards our goals. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have down time. I’m just saying don’t, like me occasionally, take the piss. Stay focussed is what I’m saying and use your time wisely.
What it really comes down to is commitment. How committed are you to learning martial arts? If you are reading this and you have just started training in martial arts then be aware that to get anywhere near competent you have to be training for at least three to five years and a lot more than that to get really good. If such a commitment is off-putting to you then you are a dabbler and you are wasting your time so you might as well quit now and find something else that you can commit to.
Not only does it take years of training to get good at martial arts, but as Ikigai pointed out recently in an article he wrote, you also have to use that time wisely and get smart with your training. Turning up for practice is not enough. The knowledge and skills will not sink in by mere transference alone; you really have to work at developing yourself as a martial artist. You have to really focus and set goals and do all you can to achieve those goals by utilising such techniques as visualization and mental focus and also be prepared to go deep inside yourself to do battle with the inevitable fears and insecurities that will surely hold you back if you don’t confront them head on and make a plan for dealing with them.
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In short, by committing yourself to martial arts you are making the decision to make martial arts training and development a part of your lifestyle. You must become someone who doesn’t just do martial arts; you must become someone who is a martial artist through and through.
Now getting back to the technique of immersion. Whenever I have tackled any new endeavour in my life I have instinctively used this technique without really knowing I was doing so. It wasn’t until I read an article by the excellent Steve Pavlina that I was able to give form to what I was doing.
Immersion is the only way to really learn anything new. You can make immersion as intensive as you like. It all depends on how much time you are able to devote and what resources you have at hand to help you. If it’s your goal to reach black belt level then you can go all out and really immerse yourself for as long as it takes for you to reach that goal or you can go all out for a certain length of time and then ease of a bit. It’s up to you and how much you can handle at the end of the day. The trick is to do as much as you can without burning out and also to structure your time smartly and wisely so you make the biggest gains possible in the shortest amount of time.
Just to prove to you the tremendous difference that the immersion technique can have on your training I am going to throw down a challenge to you. The challenge is this: for the next 30 days I want you to live and breathe your martial arts, I want you to devote as much time to it as possible. This means you will keep up your regular training but you will also train as much as you can outside of the dojo –everyday if possible. On top of that you will also figure out how you can make your training smarter by setting goals, increasing your focus and optimizing your training sessions so you get as much out of them as possible. You will also employ visualization techniques to help you along, you will meditate every day for the whole 30 days and you will read as much as you can on the type of martial arts you are practicing, by way of the internet or books or magazines like the excellent Black Belt Magazine.
Now I realise this sounds like a lot to be doing. You might be thinking you just don’t have that much time on your hands. But the fact is most of us have more time on out hands than we think. When you think of the amount of time we waste just sitting around watching TV or sitting in the pub drinking or oversleeping then you begin to see the amount of time you could potentially claw back and devote to your martial arts. Just keep reminding yourself of the commitment you have made to get good and realise that this is the only way to get there.
If you go all out for the 30 days then I can pretty much guarantee you that you will be a far better martial artist by the end of those 30 days. Your skills will have increased, your understanding will have deepened and you will be much more focused.
One of the by products that I like about immersion is the fact that the more you get into something -the more time and effort you devote to it- then the more you end up getting out of it. Success builds on success and that in itself is enough to spur you on to greater effort and commitment.
Just remember to not over do it. Do as much as possible without burning yourself out. In saying that, also be aware that certain sacrifices have to be made in order to be successful at anything. That’s just a fact and there is no getting away from it. In my pursuit of excellence in martial arts, in writing and blogging, I have made quite a few sacrifices in order to get whatever success I have so far gotten from these endeavours. Giving things up hurts a bit at first but the hurt soon goes when you realise what you have gained in return which is usually a lot more valuable than what you sacrificed.
Give of yourself 100% and life will give you back far more in return. It took me many years of messing about to realise this fact and now that I have there is no turning back. It’s all there for the taking, whatever you want, you just have to reach out and grab it.
Try the immersion technique yourself. Take the 30 day challenge and see the tremendous impact it can have on your training. It’s hard work and it takes some getting used to but believe me when I say that you won’t be disappointed in the results and neither will your instructor when they see the new level of your commitment. That’s another nice benefit I forgot to mention. If your instructor notices how much effort you are putting in then they will naturally put more effort into bringing you along as well. That’s the law of attraction at work and you will soon notice many more such helpful things happening once you commit yourself.
Just commit and all else will fall into place.
