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Keep Going

Wed, Aug 20, 2008

Personal Development

I’m just back from a 2 week visit to Japan, where 6 days of that were spent training. Long-time readers will know that I’ve been a student of the Bujinkan for the last 8-10 years (I’ve lost count), although while training with the best in Japan I felt like I’d only just started.

After one such difficult and discouraging training session, I asked a new friend for advice on the train home, who confided that he had also felt the same way. Now, this was someone who had trained for near 20 years and was pretty highly ranked (and I had the bruises from training with him to prove it) so I was more than a little surprised.

“That’s the beauty of this art,” he shared. “There’s no end to how much you can still learn. But that’s also why people stop training – they can’t take that feeling of becoming a beginner again and again.”

I know that feeling well. In these last 8-10 years of training, there were days which went well, and days that seemed like I couldn’t do anything right. It’s the ability to keep going in your training despite the sucking that probably characterizes the Bujinkan’s most oft repeated mantra: ‘keep going‘. I suppose that’s why the Japanese (and Chinese) character for nin, or ‘perseverance’, has the heart under the knife; no matter how many wounds you take to the heart, just keep persevering.

After one of our classes, a Japanese senior instructor probably saw the same discouraged look on a lot of us students, and he said that it was okay if we didn’t get everything he had taught that day.

“The most important point is to keep going.”

Training in the Bujinkan, Japan
Good training!

This post was written by:

Alvin Soon - who has written 458 posts on Life Coaches Blog.

Alvin has been a personal development coach and is the founder of Life Coaches Blog. He now writes full-time and keeps a personal blog at 21 Dragons.

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2 Comments For This Post

  1. Ren Says:
    August 21st, 2008 at 3:28 pm

    Hi Alvin! I’ve been reading your blog for some time now, always enjoyed your articles and insights.

    However I’m writing to you on a seperate note: You’ve piqued my interest regarding Bujinkan, and I was wondering if you could share information on where I could learn this martial art in Singapore? What’s the dojo history and routine like, and how much does taking up lessons cost?

    Cheers and best regards

    Ren

  2. Solomon Says:
    August 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 am

    A wise man once said “success is achieved and maintained by those who keep trying”. I think it was Napoleon Hill, or someone like that.

3 Trackbacks For This Post

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    September 16th, 2008 at 10:59 pm

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  2. The Beginner’s Mind Sucks But You Still Need It - 21 Dragons Says:
    October 18th, 2008 at 1:06 pm

    [...] “But that’s the point. Many people stop training because they can’t handle feeling like that. They need to feel like they’ve reached a certain level. But it’s when you can take feeling like a beginner again and again that you’ll stick with it. That’s the best part about what we do; there’s no end to how much we can learn. And that’s why we say in our martial art that the most important thing is to keep going.” [...]

  3. 21 Dragons » The Beginner’s Mind Sucks But You Still Need It Says:
    November 29th, 2008 at 3:48 pm

    [...] “But that’s the point. Many people stop training because they can’t handle feeling like that. They need to feel like they’ve reached a certain level. But it’s when you can take feeling like a beginner again and again that you’ll stick with it. That’s the best part about what we do; there’s no end to how much we can learn. And that’s why we say in our martial art that the most important thing is to keep going.” [...]

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