What keeps you going?

[yak sao]

The thread "Losing My Instructor", got me to thinking. There are so many times that life throws us a curve ball : moving to a new town, new job, new relationship, new baby, instructor going away, injuries.........and on and on. Any of those things would be justification to quit MA training. So what is it that keeps you going?
I came across some old MA pictures yesterday while cleaning out a closet , some from 25 years ago. So many in those pictures have gone away, moving on with their lives.
What is your motivation for staying the course after years of training when so many around you have quit?

 

[geezer]

What keeps me going? Coffee.

Other than that? I'm not really sure myself. I did quit for a long time... from about '92 to 2007. I forgot most of what I'd learned and got old and fat. I started up again and feel so much better about myself. This time I really want to stick with it for as long as I can.

 

[wkmark]

What keeps me going is that everytime I go, I can always find something new or i find something even more interesting. I make my movements smaller, more accurate and that is already something very interesting. And when I help teach, it is always a great feeling to help someone learn this art. Nevertheless, it helps release stress from work! =)

 

[cwk]

My destiny to be the ultimate dragon warrior!!

Seriously though, I'd have to say it's my sifu that keeps me going. He lives in another country and visits every few months to teach me for a few days. The time I spend learning from him is very full-on and he throws tons of information at me that I can barely absorb. What keeps me going is the knowledge that my sifu's visits are like this so I have to train as hard as I can between visits so that my skill level and understanding is at a higher level and I'm ready to soak up more of his teachings.

 

[zepedawingchun]

I have several things that keep me going.

1. is my Sifu. His school is 130 miles away from me in Atlanta, GA. It's not that far for an occasional jaunt to the school, but far enough I can't attend class twice a week. As part of the WCAUSA, I'm required to train with him a minimum of 25 hours a year to maintain my Senior Instructor status with the association. So I travel down about 5 times a year (3 ITP and 2 seminars) and train. There are other instructors, or students learning to be instructors, for which to train with, plus Sifu. And of course, when I see Sifu, he's always improving, getting better and teaching something new or from a different idea. He is just amazing.

2. are my students. They keep me on my toes and are constantly asking for information on how to get better, faster, improve on their skills and be all they can be. I just love it when a student starts to make it more difficult to stop them and gives me what for back. . . . . even if it's only for a few seconds. To me it means I'm doing something right, they're picking it up, understanding what I'm saying, and actually putting it to use. As an instructor, there's no better feeling than to see your students advancing in skill and knowledge.

3. is it's so much fun. Everyone goes through spells where they get burned out teaching or training and you have to take a break. When that happens, I turn my focus to more forms training, slow down my pace and do everything slow and easy. I then spend more time looking at everything in the forms and how I can use it another way rather than how I currently use it. A lot of times I'll watch my students doing their forms, and if someone makes a mistake or does a movement that's not quite right, I talk to them about it for a bit and it inspires me (at that moment) to work on ways to help the student(s) be consistent with their motions. Boy when that happens, an hour or so later we (the class) have brainstormed and finished to finally start our regular class. Things like that give me all sorts of ideas for class, and keeps me going.

 

[Asmo]

What keeps me going? Coffee.

Other than that? I'm not really sure myself. I did quit for a long time... from about '92 to 2007. I forgot most of what I'd learned and got old and fat. I started up again and feel so much better about myself. This time I really want to stick with it for as long as I can.

That's like me, albeit on a larger scale. I haven't attended classes for about 3 months now. I've practiced on my own though. I stopped going because I forgot the reasons I went in the first place. Now with the time away, I'd ready to jump back in and stick with it for as long as I am able to.

 

[aichis]

maybe to remembering about self defense again street fighters...

 

[Vajramusti]

What keeps me going?... a sense of how deep and "natural"- is this deep art.

joy chaudhuri

 

[mook jong man]

Well , its become a bit of a habit now and it just seems easier to keep going than it is to stop.

 

[Kanoy919]

1. Safety and Security of my family and friends (if needed & under the proper circumstances).
2. I'm very goal oriented and continue to want to reach higher levels.
3. It's a life style. Keeps me thinking and active.

That's what I have right now in a nutshell.

Ingat (Take Care)

 

[chain punch]

2. I'm very goal oriented and continue to want to reach higher levels.
3. It's a life style. Keeps me thinking and active.
)

Number 2 applies to me. I like to think that I am a very ordinary member of my class but I want to train hard to become extraordinary. Aim for the stars and all of that.

I like to grow through the difficulty of training. In my mind I am better than I am in reality so training at the class keeps my feet firmly on the ground and shows me what I need to work on to improve.

Similar to number 3 above, I want to stay mobile, fit and healthy into old age. Maintaining good habits in terms of lifestyle choice at my young age of 37 in the hope that in 30 years I will still be training.

 

[dan.h]

Interesting thread. I'm also kinda in a rut here. I've stopped training in mid-Oct and haven't been back yet. I stopped because we were in the busy and exhausting time of finding & purchasing our first home. We moved in at the end of Oct but I never went back because we're also about to have our first baby in Feb and it's been crazy busy preparing for that AND fixing up the house we bought. Now I'm enjoying all the extra time I have from not training but I'm also feeling fat and lazy too. lol I'd like to go back but perhaps after the baby is born.

 

[geezer]

Interesting thread. I'm also kinda in a rut here. I've stopped training in mid-Oct and haven't been back yet. I stopped because we were in the busy and exhausting time of finding & purchasing our first home. We moved in at the end of Oct but I never went back because we're also about to have our first baby in Feb and it's been crazy busy preparing for that AND fixing up the house we bought. Now I'm enjoying all the extra time I have from not training but I'm also feeling fat and lazy too. lol I'd like to go back but perhaps after the baby is born.

Watch out dude! That's pretty much how it happened with me. I put my training on hold for several reasons, then came a career change, moving into a new house, then a baby, and before you know it what began as a short term "break" stretched into about 16 years! And talk about "fat and lazy"! I put on about 35 pounds (and that shows when you're only about 5'8"). Finally back about 2007 I got off my fat **** and started training again. It's been hard trying to catch up and re-learn everything I forgot. I'm not about to quit again. Even for a few months!

Now I'm worried that my training partners are in a similar position. As I mentioned on another thread, one may have to leave the area. The other senior member, like you, just moved into a new house and his wife had another baby. We haven't seen him since before Thanksgiving. A third guy in our tiny group joined the Airforce and is about to be shipped out. Heck, even my training fell off over the holidays and I put on 10 pounds I don't need. But this time I'm determined to keep on training... somehow!

 

[Nabakatsu]

Don't stop going Steeve! I'll need somebody to beat me up when my gf eventually drags my butt out to AZ!

 

[Domino]

Like what has already been said.
A lifestyle choice, habit or is part of my routine and through respect to my sifu.

 

[KamonGuy2]

If you have to ask yourself what keeps you going then you are in a lot of trouble

Martial artists do it because they love it. That simple. If you dont love it, give up. No excuses should ever matter - Ive been with numerous different instructors and have never even wavered in giving up

 

[Beginner's Mind]

My body and my mind feel relaxed, alert and powerful when I practice. It feels like Wing Chun is something I was born to do.

 

[Vajramusti]

A sense of awe regarding the depth of the art and continuing discoveries along the way.

joy chaudhuri