The destination? Or the journey?

[Carol]

The Boston Marathon was run this past Monday. One of the owners of my school competed, and finished. His time was not where he was hoping to be, yet he finished 4000 places higher than where he started.

As his student, I'm incredibly proud of him.

One of my colleagues differes.

"What's the point?" she shrugs. "I mean, you could train for all that time, then get the flu on the big day. Then it's all lost"

Heck, I'd love to be in the kind of shape that could run for 26.2 miles, instead of ~1.5 miles. Even if I never run the race.

So, my question for you all...what motivates you more with your own training?

The destination?

Or the journey?

Or both?

 

[Flying Crane]

The journey, definitely. I just enjoy doing it. I have no idea where I am going.

 

[stickarts]

When I first started I would say I was mainly destination driven.
Over time, I have learned the value of appreciating and enjoying the journey. Both are important to me now but the journey is in much greater focus now.
For example, when going through a kata, how enjoyable it is to practice outdoors and enjoy the sun and the breeze, and to really FEEL the moves as you flow through it. no worries about if you will win a tournament, or get a stripe, or evaluation from others. Just enjoying the moment.
By practice, you will still reach the destination anyway and how much more enjoyable it is to get the most out of the journey. Developing a skill is never a waste.

 

[Henderson]

The Journey. Definitely the journey. If you have a destination...what happens IF you reach it? Is your training done?

Just my $.02

 

[terryl965]

In Martial arts it is always about the Journey, destination is one traveling to a certain point, in MA there is no finale point only more knowledge. When I hit my destination I'll be dead and of course hopefully burried.
Terry

 

[FearlessFreep]

The journey is a new destination every day. I don't really know *where* i'm going but every day I'm glad it's brought me *here* If tomorrow for some reason I can no longer go forward, then I'm glad that *this* was the destination. If I can go forward tomorrow, then today's destination becomes a part of the journey that led me to tomorrow

They are really the same thing, just seen from different perspectives of time and experience

 

[Henderson]

The journey is a new destination every day. I don't really know *where* i'm going but every day I'm glad it's brought me *here* If tomorrow for some reason I can no longer go forward, then I'm glad that *this* was the destination. If I can go forward tomorrow, then today's destination becomes a part of the journey that led me to tomorrow

They are really the same thing, just seen from different perspectives of time and experience

I like that! Too bad I've given out too much rep for the day already.:idunno:

 

[Lisa]

Oh, most definitely the journey. With all its ups and downs and tosses and turns. It keeps things interesting. When training for anything, the destination shoul always remain slightly out of reach and be something you should always work hard to catch.

 

[still learning]

Hello, When the journey begins....it is destiny that keeps us going.

Everyone journey will begin differently....our destinations may be the same.

On this journey..for lunch I would like to bring 2 rice balls,several pieces of fried chicken, and one gatorade, for dinner? 3 rice balls, teriyaki meat, one ear of corn, and one can diet pepsi.

If the journey is going to be longer...a chance to go home and take a bath and eat?

So far this journey has not ended.....our destinations...still far away...slowly running out of rice...what to do?...OH well.....Aloha

 

[HKphooey]

I have always felt it is the people we meet along the way. The lives we touch, and those that impact our lives. A man surrounded by friends and family is the richest man. I have met some of the my greatest friends though the martial arts.

 

[OnlyAnEgg]

Hands down, the journey. Until I started playing the Make Rich Parsons Famous game, it was even in my sig.

It's what we learn in order to arrive at a point that makes the point important. Without the journey, the is no arrival.

 

[Robert Lee]

Its as a path and that path you walk many times over and over seeing and understanding more each time. A goal has a limit which you can reach But knowledge is allways just beyond your next step. What a person in the M/A learns is to allway improve on the basics.

 

[Rick Wade]

Definately the Journey.

That won't be the only race he runs.

I got into martial arts because of a fight.

Years later when I was held up for my wallet I was going to give them my wallet and then something kicked in and I defended myself.

I don't take Kenpo now just in case I get into a fight I take it because of the way it makes me feel about myself and my family and friends. It definetly levels my attitude.

V/R

Rick

 

[Ceicei]

It is the journey and the destination. The destinations are the goals along the way--they are there for me to reach, and then set another one... Basically, a journey of self-improvement/personal evolution. The process is what makes training worthwhile.

- Ceicei

 

[Hand Sword]

In my beginning it would have been the destination as the primary focus. I wanted to get my Black Belt. That was the focus, the belts were just stepping stones along the way. Through the years, especially, now I admire my journey. It is this that I would recommend to people to enjoy, and focus on through the training. You're going to get to a destination eventually, if you keep training, anyway. Enjoy the scenary, and experiences on the way. Those are what Make the training, in my opinion.

 

[Last Fearner]

I don't know if this parable has been shared here at MT before, but I think this is as good a time as any for it to be retold. I am quoting an anonymous story written in the book "Zen in the Martial Arts" by Joe Hyams.

A young boy traveled across Japan to the school of a famous martial artist. When he arrived at the dojo, he was given an audience by the sensei.
"What do you wish from me?" the master asked.
"I wish to be your student and become the finest karateka in the land," the boy replied. "How long must I study?"
"Ten years at least," the master answered.
"Ten years is a long time," said the boy. "What if I studied twice as hard as all your other students?"
"Twenty years," replied the master.
"Twenty years! What if I practice day and night with all my effort?"
"Thirty years," was the master's reply.
"How is it that each time I say I will work harder, you tell me that it will take longer" the boy asked.
"The answere is clear. When one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the Way."

Another phrase comes to my mind - - "Sometimes you need to stop and smell the roses." That's what life is all about, the journey . . . the experience. Short term and long term goals are fine. They help give us direction and motivation (they keep us from sitting in the rose garden all day long smelling roses, and not getting anything done! :lol: ). When you reach a goal, enjoy the moment, set a new one, then get back the joy of experiencing the journey of life. Our final destination will come soon enough - let us not worry for its outcome. The destination holds only the joy that you bring to it from the journey - - don't arrive empty handed!

CM D. J. Eisenhart

 

[Hand Sword]

I would also like to add : Don't discount the bad experiences either. They are truly the best teachers of lessons. accept that they will happen or have happened and examine them with a reasonable mind. You'll find a lot of insight.

 

[MA-Caver]

Most definitely the journey. As long as I'm learning from it, I know I'm on the right path, it's when I stop learning that I know that I've strayed.
A quote from Dune:

Many have marked the speed with which Maud'Dib learned the necessities of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit, of course, know the basis of this speed. For the others, we can say that Maud'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. It's shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Maud'Dib knew that every experience carries it's lesson. ~from the Humanity of Maud'Dib by the Princess Irulan.

And one more...

"Any road followed precisely to it's end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountian just a little to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountian, you cannot see the mountian." ~ Bene Gesserit proverb

I can see from these two that they speak of the journey of our lives and the learning curve which faces all of us as we continue our individual paths. How fortunate we are that sometimes individual paths cross so that we may learn something new from a friend, acquaintance, or a stranger. It may not be what we might want to learn at the time, but if (remembered) we can see as we are further down our own paths how that experience was something to be learned from.
Sometimes yes chance encounters are inconsequential and sometimes they're life changing, most of the time they're somewhere in between. To treasure each person, each encounter is to treasure the greatest gift that life sees fit to bestow upon us... an opportunity to learn and to become (in time) something greater than what we are now.
Martial arts provides us with something more than learning to coordinate mind and body (and spirit) to one being. It also (among many other benefits) gives us the ability to have the discipline to stop and reflect along the way. It is, in my humble opinion one of the greatest learning experiences we can give ourselves.

:asian:

 

[green meanie]

For me it's both. Although I value the journey more than the destination, I think the destination has some impact on the quality of your journey and what you're likely to pick up along the way. It was the Boston Marathon that originally brought the question to Carol's mind after all. And while I think having the opportunity to experience running in something like that, with its rich history and tradition, is more important than when (or if) you cross the finish line, I think running those particular 26 miles toward the finish line would be more rewarding than if I was to run 26 miles in a circle in my backyard.

 

[Henderson]

I think running those particular 26 miles toward the finish line would be more rewarding than if I was to run 26 miles in a circle in my backyard.

That would be kinda silly! No?