Budo Warrior

     One of my favorite self help or personal improvement gurus is Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People When I first read this book back years ago when it first came out and I was just starting out as a young Financial Services Salesman, it had a huge impact on my outlook on life.

It was not too long afer this, that I first started studying Karate at the local health club.  15 years later, well here I am!

Looking over this book the other day, I thought that it is very applicable to Budoka and Martial Artist.  So here are the Seven Habits!  I will write more about them individually later on as I find them very applicable to developing your personal practice.

The Seven Habits:

1.  Be Proactive.  Take personal responsibility for yourself and your training.  Remember, all situations are made up of a Stimulus and a Response.  In between that gap, we have CHOICE.  The choices we make can be of low skill or high skill.  In our martial practice we are striving to make better and more skillful choices. 

2.  Begin with an End in Mind.  This one is VERY important!  I think many people that study martial arts don’t really know what and why they are studying.  A survey of beginners will say “For Self Defense” most of the time, or “To get in shape”, or “I like the way it makes me feel”.   Nothing wrong with any of those things, but is the system you are studying the best one to achieve your goals?  Is it aligned with them?  Are their other practices that might best help you acheive them?  Make sure you understand why you are doing what you are doing all the time!  On a smaller scale. Make every practice count!  Think about the class before you even start, and figure out what it is that you want to accomplish that class.

3.  Put First things First.  Figure out your priorities in life, and make sure you make time for the important things.  Most Budo practices take years to master. We have to do alot of mudane and detailed things along the way to learn and accomplish our goals.  Make sure you are spending your time wisely doing the things that are necessary and important.  They may not be the most fun things, or the most pressing things, but they are important and necessary.

4. Think Win/Win.  Wow, this one is like it was written for budoka!  This is what our core practice is all about!  Creating Win/Win situations.  We must take care of our training partners and in order for us to get better and improve, we must ensure that we are training together as a family and a team.  Of course, the study of budo is the study of winning and losing.  Within that context though, everyone ultimately wins when we train hard and honestly.

5.  Seek to Understand, then to be Understood.  Again, another Wow.  Personally I think this is the essence and one of the core princples of budo.  We are practicing hard to understand others.  It is through the conflict and fights that we have in the dojo that we begin to understand how others work, how they respond, and what makes them tick.  We implicitly and explicity begin to learn that our own authentic success comes not by forcing our will on others, but by understanding them, and responding in kind with the right response.

6.  Synergize.  This one can happen on many levels.  First, we improve self and gain an understanding of how our bodies work as a whole.  In budo, this is what we are studying.  That is, how do we align the mind, body, spirit, and our perception of the world around us so as we may make skillful choices in our interactions with others and ourselves.  Second, when we do this, we begin to form bonds and relationships with others in our dojo.  We begin to act as a family or team, building interdependence, which is, I believe, our ultimate goal through the practice of budo.

7.  Sharpen the Saw.  Well we should be doing this all the time with every practice!  However, it goes deeper than that.  We must take care of ourselves mentally, spiritually, and physically. It is not enough to come to practice, we must continue our practice outside of the dojo.  Eating right, taking vacations, spending time with the family.  Balance and moderation are key.

I think that if we spend time developing these seven habits, we can build a long lasting, rewarding, and sustainable martial practice!

What a good way to start the new year!