Being Tough Means Choosing The Right
Being tough means choosing the right.
It's easy to want to be tough when you're in trouble, when all your friends are pointing out that it could get worse and they might not be there to help you if you don't protect yourself.
But being tough is more than just a mindset — it's a way of life. You'll have the belief that no matter what comes at you, or what happens to your loved ones, you can keep going and keep fighting with dignity and class. Being tough means having the confidence to say no to weakness.
It's worth pointing out that this is not a capability that is handed out to everyone at birth. It's not like you can just decide one night at 3:00 a.m. "I'm going to be tough," and wake up the next morning as a tough person, ready to take on everything in front of you with ease and grace.
Being tough takes time. It takes patience. It takes a lot of training, and it takes having an iron will that can stand up to the most brutal of circumstances.
In the initial stages of becoming tough, you'll have to train yourself to withstand pain and pressure. You'll have to accept that not everything will be easy and fun, because otherwise you won't be learning what it is to be tough — you'll simply be wasting your time. Your goal shouldn't just be about not getting hurt, but about becoming something greater than what you were before. [ARTICLE ENDS]
On a related note, I've been following the Kata aspect of my study and the progress that is being made, and I have to say it's made me incredibly proud. It's not just a martial art; it's a lifestyle. It's molded into something beautiful through the deliberate slow process of trial and error from many individuals over many decades who have undergone this discipline at varying levels of physical ability and mental fortitude. With training, determination, mental fortitude and flexibility to change your habits at will, you become a living example of what can be accomplished without losing your humanity to become an automaton capable of executing flawless form. It's a lifestyle, and it's one that I hope to achieve, even in my old age.
A good day today, with a quick workout before class at the gym. The music was pumping and everyone had a smile on their face while they were sweating it out around me.
"We'll all be dead by tomorrow," yelled one guy at the beginning of class when we were all stretching.
"Or better than tomorrow," I shouted back, with a laugh. Great training yesterday and today have made me feel invincible and ready to take on whatever is thrown my way.
Sorry I've been a bit absent lately. I've just been in that sort of mode where I do my thing and don't try to make any contact unless something is going on. I'm sure you guys understand.
Tomorrow we have another training session, so it will be interesting to see what we get up to tomorrow night when we wrap up the session. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun.
That's about it for now, I think. Thanks for reading!
ps. I'm going to try and get back into the routine of writing at least once per day. It's been a while since I've been able to do that because of my lack of inspiration, but hopefully with the new updates coming in soon I'll be able to get back into it pretty quickly because there will be plenty of things worth writing about.
I have a couple more interesting updates from the past few days that I think will catch your interest if you take the time to read them, so please stay tuned! ☺
Until next time...
- Shihan Tafari Dunn
Shihan Tafari Dunn is a Kata master, instructor and mentor based in New York City. His Karate style is Shorin Ryu, which he has been studying for over 30 years. He loves training students and helping them to follow their own path towards true self-discovery via the martial arts. His website can be visited at:http://www.shorinryu-karate.com
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author's alone and do not reflect the position of any other entity or organization unless specifically stated in a separate statement from To Be Continued… . This Article was originally published by To Be Continued… at: http://www.tobe continued.com/thinking-about-martial-arts/. Reposted with permission.
Photo Credit: Mike Stanger, via Flickr Creative Commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . You may repost with proper attribution, contact information and credit to: To Be Continued...@ gmail.com . Thanks!
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On the way back from New York City, Cap and I decided to take a detour on our journey back home. We had planned a route that would take us through Scranton, Pennsylvania so I had the opportunity to check out my hometown for the first time in many years. The last time I was there was when we were moving our stuff out of my mom's house before she went off on holiday with my brother and sister-in-law. It was nice to be back in that familiar place, but it was also sad to see what's become of my hometown in the past few years. I wanted to try and capture some of that nostalgia on this blog by sharing with you guys what I saw and some of the detours we took.
If you're interested in learning more about my hometown and getting a glimpse at what it used to look like back when I was young, feel free to check out this post by clicking on the photo below:
If you want to learn more about the fallacies and hypocrisy surrounding natural gas pipelines , read this blog by clicking on the photo below:
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Conclusion
For centuries, man has attempted to create an effective and efficient society. We have tried to create a society where everyone is equal, but that's not possible because people are not born equal. How do you fix this? By giving everyone a chance, by giving everyone the same opportunity as others to succeed or fail in their own way. Despite the inherent inequality in all of us, when given the proper opportunity and support we can surpass what we thought was possible before and become something greater than ourselves.
The United States of America is known for its freedoms.