Article #3 - Losing Motivation

Sang Dong Bin & Other Articles

Article #3 Losing Motivation

Publication date: 19th March 2019

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How many kicks must you practise in order to lay a devastating roundhouse on your instructor? How many times must you practise that first wooden dummy form? How many situps do you need to do to get and maintain an eight pack?

It all comes down to how motivated you are. Work, family, personal and professional goals can motivate you or stress you out depending on what your mindset is.

I totally understand it too. You know, from the moment you get up in the morning, you are in a state of discharging, and that's assuming you got the required seven to eight hours of sleep.

Think about it. We spend more time charging our phones, tablets and other devices instead of charging ourselves. We think a two week holiday in the sun will help us. It will, but only temporarily. When you come back home, you have to plan for the working week, catch up on work you would have completed had you been at work. Then, there's your spouse, partner, children, parents and other family members to deal with.

For your own peace of mind, you need quality time with your friends. You need to engage in your own personal goals outside of martial arts. You need some down time / me time.

Given all that, how can you keep up the standard required of you at the School of Martial Arts?

I have always been a demanding teacher, but only because I am committed to

excellence in martial arts. I don't take excuses from students - they can go to group classes or lesser demanding 1:1 lessons if they wish. My job is never to hurt a student but to make him better. Telling me 'don't do this or that' won't help him become fitter, better skilled at fighting, or remain motivated. That is an internal matter for the student alone.

Ultimately, gradings don't matter. How you perform each move or combination, form or set of conditioning rounds is down to you, once the teacher has shown you how to do them. Keeping the standard up is easy once you commit to not dropping it. Think about it - your family, your spouse, your children will want you to turn up each and every time how they expect you to be. As the instructor, all I want to see is your very best punch, block, kick and combination for the hour or so that you train in your lesson.

You cannot get motivated about something you are not passionate about. If you commit to excellence in most areas of your life, (instead of one or two, and phoning it in elsewhere) you will see evidence of reward everywhere. Isn't that motivation enough for you?

Something to think about:-

Sometimes, no matter what you do - a project, a goal, a job, or a relationship will fail. Punch a pillow, scream in the woods, kick a brick wall (don't do the last one!) You were motivated for a specific amount of time, and if you gave it your all and it still floundered, don't beat yourself up about it. Instead, take that energy, focus, drive and put it into a new bowl of motivation that will reap rewards for you, as you gained so much experience and knowledge from the previous attempts. The goals you failed at were simply not the right goals for you. Now that you understand this, the next goal you go for will be one you achieve relatively easily.

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