- It was a early Saturday morning. The lights were still to bright for my eyes to adjust. They didn’t want to open all the way. The crust still holding them shut. I’m clutching the arms of the plastic white chair I’m sitting in. I’m nervous. I’m anxious. All I wanted to do was go home. I was already here though there was no turning back. I stand up and fix my karate uniform. I kick my shoes off. Slip my socks into my shoes. I wrap my yellow karate belt around my waist. I look around and I see red belts. Black belts. Blue belts. I was the only a yellow belt, I felt like I shouldn’t be here. I’m not good enough for this. I’m trying to not cry. Its hard. The tears are coming down my face but I am doing my best to contain myself. I step onto the mats. The soft red and blue mats were no comfort for the uneasiness I felt. I sat down and waited for the instructor to line up class. Finally the time came and my stomach seemed to float into my throat. I stood up with everyone else and lined up for class. We lined up by rank so of course I was last. I felt unqualified to be here. I was only seven. These people were a lot older than me and have been training a lot longer. We started class with a warm up. Easy enough. I can do jumping jack, push ups, squats crunches. Stretching feels good. I could feel myself waking up. My eyes were more open now. This still did not take away the uneasy feeling that I had. Then it came time to work on some kicks. The instructor asked everyone one by one how many kicks they believe that they can do without putting there foot down. One by one everyone gave their answer. 20. 50. 100. 200. 1,000. Of course he asked me last. I didn’t know how many kicks I could do. I have been doing martial arts for maybe a month. The most kicks I have ever done without putting my leg down was 1. I didn’t know what to say to him. So I guessed. “4” I said. All the kids laughed. Even the instructor had to chuckle. This did not make me feel any better. Now it came time to see if we could reach our goal. I started kicking. 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 54!. I did 54 kicks before I had to put my led down. The instructor smiled. He said to me “Now Ryan. You must believe that you can always do better than you think you can."
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Blaming your circumstances for where you are and what you become is the worse thing you can do. The only reason you are where you currently are is because of the person that you have become. It is you who over a period of time has sailed your boat to your current location. The same wind blows on us all. The economic wind, the political wind, and the social wind are all challenges that we all meet at some point in time. It is the direction of your sail that determines where you end up. In other words, it is not what happens that determines your life future. Rather it is what you do about what happens that shapes the results you obtain in life. Your circumstances are controlled by your actions. Your actions are controlled by your thoughts. So you must indirectly change your circumstances by changing your thoughts. This is not something that can be done overnight. We are all controlled by our paradigm which is a multitude of habits fixed in our subconscious mind. These habits have been placed in our subconscious mind from the time we were babies through the repetition of information. To change this paradigm we must change the information going into our brain. Our brain makes the most powerful super computer look like a toy. What we put into our brain is what we get out. The media today is filled with negativity. The more shock and sensationalism the more people will watch and they know this. Watching and reading about the latest car accident, bank robbery, stabbing, shooting, mugging, killing and tragedy does nothing but fill our glass with dirty water. If we do not control what goes into our brain the weeds will grow. We must purposely wash our glass with clean water each day. Just how you let a dirty glass of water run under a sink long enough and it will be clean so will your brain.
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I do not consider myself a writer. I do not write as often as I should. When I do write it is because I have an idea that I need to jot down before it's gone with the wind. All of my writing is done impromptu and I just let the ideas flow freely from mind to paper. The only time I sit to write about a predetermined idea is when it is required for school. Writing is an important part of the creative process and required to grow as a person. As I am not a writer I do not make myself write or perform a certain ritual. I just let the words flow freely when I feel them.
Distractions are only something that the less focused use as an excuse for not getting something done. If something matters enough to someone they will do it. If Osama Bin Laden called me and said he was going to bomb my house if I didn't write my blog I would undoubtably have my blog written before the phone call was over. The only reason I would be "distracted" from my writing is because I am doing something else that holds more importance to me. That's not to say that writing is important. Writing services as a way for the inner you to come out onto paper and say what you want to say. It allows for freedom of expression. It allows for growth in language and vocabulary. An increased vocabulary allows for an increased attitude. An increased attitude allows for increased actions. Increased actions allows for increased results.
Disruptions are nothing more than things that we allow to stop us from doing what we need to do. As a college student I let a lot of things get in the way of my school work. The key phrase in that sentence is "I let". I own my own business and have recently started investing in real estate. Both of these things I have begun and will continue to grow and expand regardless of my degree. When I choose to do these things over my school work it is simply because I view them as being more important. I have a list of priorities and school is at the bottom of my list. I do not party, I do not hang out with my friends, I do not watch TV, I do not play games on my phone. I am constantly working to build my empire, if that means letting my GPA slip I am okay with that. The owner of a 100 unit apartment complex isn't going to ask me for my credit score when I ask him to purchase his building let alone my report card.
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