Written by I just finished reading Zen In The Martial Arts. There were many great ideas that encouraged me. The author’s teacher was Bruce Lee. Two of Bruce Lee’s quotes from his lessons for the author rang true in my heart. “Do not allow negative thoughts to enter your mind for they are weeds that strangle confidence.” The second quote was also empowering. ” I can do it rather than I can’t.” Both these quotes relate to the black belt challenge for me. When I think a negative thought about karate that I have a hard time with I change my view on it. I may not be a professional at something right now, but with hard work and persistance I can get better at it. Get rid of the weed. I change the thought to be positive and productive towards the end goal. I used the second quote as an example in my training. When I first thought about doing 50,000 push up and crunches I was over whelmed. That’s a whole lot. How can I do that? I can’t do that all at once, but I can start with 40 a day of each. Then I went to 60 after a few weeks. Then I went to 80 and so on until I do 140 a day. Now I can reach my goal over a years time with doing that many. I never tell myself I can’t do it. I tell myself I can do it. The mind is a very powerful in helping me to be able to do anything. I firmly believe in positive thinking. It helped me pass my brown belt test and it will help me through this black belt challenge.
I would highly recommend this book to everyone in the dojo to read. There is much wisdom to gain from if for karate and life. There are many more ideas and lessons I want to write about. It just won’t fit in one blog.
Great book review Elan. Zen In the Martial Arts is one of my all-time favorite martial arts books. There are many lessons in it that you can carry with you on your journey. Every great achievement begins in the mind. However, I don’t want that to sound like a cliche. If something seems overwhelming – like 50, 000 pushups – you’ll never accomplish your goal if it’s so overwhelming to you that you can’t possibly see the end. So you first have to break up the elephant into individual chunks; like individual projects. Once the goal seems achievable, positive thoughts come naturally. That’s a skill that takes practice. It sounds like you’re figuring it out.