Many people would agree that the destination for a martial artist is Black Belt.  However, this thought usually comes from those who haven’t trained or only trained for a brief amount of time.  First degree black belt is only one step of many. 

Now that I’ve give you an analogy that is somewhat tiring to put yourself into, let me clarify more.  Though there is no true destination to this journey, it is important to define goals and clarify short-term destinations.  If you’re hiking, running long distances, or climbing a mountain, you know that you don’t want to look miles away and think you have to be there now.   You will de-motivate and possibly wear yourself out…mentally and physically.  Try picking a short-term goal, “I can make it to that tree 1 mile ahead.”  Then pick yourself another one, “Great, I passed that and now I’ll make it to that rock another mile ahead.”  Set yourself mini-goals and the journey as a whole seems less long and more enjoyable.  “I made it to purple belt, great!  Next step, brown belt.”

Martial arts, like climbing a mountain, will have easy and hard parts.  They’ll even have periods of plateaus and steeper climbers.  But when you keep going, you find yourself higher and higher up the mountain, that is, more skilled and a wider range of knowledge.  As you may have heard from different philosophies, it’s the journey, not the destination that matters.  This holds true in martial arts.  Allow yourself to make that journey easier by setting those mini-goals along the way.

Josh Moree