Greatness

When I was in elementary school, I was not challenged to greatness. School work was not a challenge to me, it came easy. In fact, with almost no effort, year after year, I would get all A's and one B on my report card.

From time to time my father would talk to me about "buckling down" and getting serious about my school work, but I did not see the point in working hard because getting good grades was so easy for me. My theory as a child was, "If I can get grades like this with minimal effort, why would I want to work a lot harder to get slightly better grades?"

I was coasting.

I was also developing bad study and work habits that still come back and bite me to this day.

A year ago I put together the Ten Tigers program for me and any students who wanted to join me. The purpose, for me, was to stop coasting. The program requires lots of exercise, lots of hard work, reading, acts of kindness, exercises in sympathy, writing, and lots more.

The Ten Tigers program is very challenging, it is also very rewarding. It has changed the way I live every day. I'm in the best shape of my life, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

The whole premise is to work hard, to strive for greatness. Why settle for what comes easy when you can reach towards your full potential?

Why coast downhill, when you can pedal and build up momentum for when you have to go uphill?

Why settle for mediocrity, when you can strive for greatness?

“There are countless ways of attaining greatness, but any road to reaching one's maximum potential must be built on a bedrock of respect for the individual, a commitment to excellence, and a rejection of mediocrity.”

Buck Rodgers quotes (Former American Baseball Player. b.1938)

Mastery: In Someone Else's Words.

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Is-Mastery-And-Why-It-Makes-All-The-Difference-In-The-World&id=16455

Why Compete: Finale

I spent a few months with no desire to go to anymore tournaments. Then as Master Tom's tournament was coming around again I decided that I would go ahead and participate in that one again. I started looking at my motives, trying to encourage myself to get fired up for it. Then I realized I wanted the tournament to be a means not an end. Instead of training for the tournament I decided to use the tournament to train. I decided to be open to any experience, any learning I could get from the process.

I realized that a lot can be accomplished through a tournament. I realized that the reward is not the hunk of plastic, or admiration of others, or setting an example for others. The reward was the training leading up to the tournament. So by the time I got on the competition floor, I had already won a bigger prize than anyone could give me.

I was no longer competing to win, or competing to set an example, or competing to put on a show.

I was simply competing to compete.

My purpose for competing now is to experience the competition, and be open to any insights or lessons that come from it. I am no longer imposing my will on what I want to get from the competition.

AND I'm having fun.

Why Compete? Part Two

When I first saw how important winning was to many people in tournaments, and what lengths some would go to to make sure that they won, I went on a mission.

My mission was to win without all the rule bending and breaking that I was seeing. To win forms and weapons competition without acrobatics added to my martial arts, to win sparring competition with traditional technique instead of point sparring techniques that would fail miserably in self defense. I wanted to show people that tournaments could be won without all that, and at different tournaments I had varying degrees of success.

Every body else, though, kept on doing the same things they had been doing. I had failed myself because my motivation was in the wrong place. I was trying to change other people.

After I realized my motivation was in the wrong spot I started competing for my self, not for others. My mission became to win with honor. I wanted to honor the traditional forms and techniques of the martial arts I study, and win tournaments in the process.

I learned a lot from this period in my life, but it still was not fulfilling. The idea of winning just wasn't doing it for me. When I won it was nice, but not what I envisioned it to be. When I didn't win, there were feelings of disappointment. So I needed a new answer to the question, "Why Compete?"

Coming soon: Part three of "Why Compete?"