For many years, I got up in the morning at 4:30, five days a week so I could hit the gym before work. It wasn't that I enjoyed getting up that early, especially on Mondays, but it was the only time I had for supplemental training. Now that my job is at home
and I don't have classes or clients before 8:00 most days, I let myself sleep in until 5:00 am. And these days, I get up a little slower than I used to. A couple cups of coffee, some bible study, news, etc. And I admit that I occasionally fall into the trap of letting my comfort dictate my mornings. It's not a good thing.
Comfort is very habit forming; it is the killer of discipline, aspirations, accomplishments and dreams. Those who seek comfort over hard work never achieve their goals or potential. Never. Let's take martial arts, for example. I have been to a number of dojos of just about every discipline and you can always tell what kind of a place it is by how people sweat. That' right, "how." I mean, I know a lot of people who work up a sweat going up and down the steps, so I'm not necessarily impressed just because you perspire a little. There's a difference between "this is really hard" and "holy cow, when is this going to end?" You want to be in the place that routinely practices the latter.
A dojo is not just a place to learn how to defend yourself. You can do that at the YMCA. Heck, you can do that online. No, a dojo is place to go and condition your mind, body and spirit. Conditioning in any form is painful and uncomfortable for the express purpose of improving one's self. From that perspective, anyplace or activity can be your personal dojo; the gym, the running trail, the weight room, a road bike, the library, study hall, a church. The trick is, you have to get off the couch, out of bed and/or out of your head. In Matthew 26:41, Jesus tells us that "...the spirit is willing, but the body is weak." In essence, we're tired, grumpy and unmotivated, so we allow ourselves off the hook with rationale like, "I'll start Monday." "It's too cold." "It's too far." "I don't know what I'm doing." "I'm too tired." There's always a reason not to go to your dojo.
But most of us can relate to the feeling we get after forcing ourselves to do something we don't want to do. And I'm willing to bet that you didn't regret doing it. I'm sorry, kids, but it doesn't get easier. I dreamed of having a commercial martial arts school and training business for years, believing that I would have all the time in the world to workout. Uh, no. It's actually harder to carve out the time and the motivation to do my own training. In fact, it has become increasingly uncomfortable to make myself uncomfortable. So, I follow strict rules on everything from media, to working out, to fasting, prayer, etc. Of course, I fall off the wagon sometimes, but I have personal standards firmly in place and if my performance is off in any way, I only have myself to blame. Not letting yourself off the hook is vital to avoiding too much comfort.
The cool thing is, when you approach life and training with that attitude, you enjoy your down time a whole lot more because you've earned it. You didn't just show up; you worked hard, sweat hard, trained hard. You endured pain and discomfort and in doing so, invested in your personal growth. There is a piece of scripture I have leaned on a lot in the last few years for various reasons. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. " 2 Timothy 4:7 Whether you are a Christian or not, you have to see the beauty and applicability of that sentence. We can apply this part of God's wisdom to anything: work, faith, parenting, marriage, college, fitness...martial arts. There is nothing in this life worth having that that piece of scripture does not apply to. When I feel like slacking in any way, I ask myself if I will be able to say that sentence with honesty and assurance when my time on this planet is over.
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward." Colossians 3:23-24
Dave Magliano
Tatsu Dojo
Jissenkan Budo
Dojo Cho