A good way to maintain motivation is to remember one’s unique reasons for practice. I’ve been training for more than forty-eight years. I couldn’t continue without reaffirming why I live for the deep and meaningful results that manifest each day.
Despite that length of time, I have never fully acknowledged my motivations in any comprehensive way. That’s partially from being disorganized. It’s also because my insights developed slowly. In the beginning, I liked what I saw, fell in love, and rarely bothered to question it.
That was also a consequence of Chinese culture: don’t ask questions, don’t intellectualize, do everything you’re told, and the truth will come “someday.” If I wanted to be pretentious, I could invoke concepts like wordless teaching, empty mind, or no action. But that would be an exaggeration. I joined a martial arts school in the summer of 1975 because I was fascinated. I read that it took forty years to get good. Content to be young and dumb, I said, “Okay, I’ll do that.”
Many excellent reasons exist to support a lifetime of practice. Each of you will surely have your own reasons and they will differ from mine. That’s fine. Sharing our reasons allows us to support each other and renew our commitment to this wonderful tradition of martial arts and spirituality.
I’ll address these topics:
1. Attraction
2. Health
3. Acuity
4. Learning
5. Defense
6. Recovery
7. Discipline
8. Honor
9. Culture
10. Loyalty
11. Nature
12. Aging
13. Philosophy
14. Meditation
15. Spirituality
Conclusion
I encourage you to consider your own motivations and to know why you practice. During this series, I invite you to share them, or say how some aspect of mine might trigger an association with your own.