Lately, I’ve gotten back into martial arts training.
There are so many external rewards from training, such as staying physically fit, joining a community of like-minded people, and seeing the fruits of your labor as you improve. I’m diving into multiple at the same time, so while I’m learning so much, it comes with being exhausted at times. This will affect my release schedule for the weekly newsletters, but I still expect them to come every week - just not always on Sundays.
What I truly love about training is that there are so many lessons for life tied into the art and craft of whichever one you choose. Whether it’s Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling, whatever, you come away from each session with a new technique to hone and another skill to add to your repertoire. The brain is wired to benefit from being active, so when it comes to improvement, I believe in taking the tools from each one and packaging them to inform another. This doesn’t only work for martial arts, but any lesson you derive from a craft can help you in your everyday life as well.
On the improvement journey, there’s a major trap you need to avoid though: over-analysis. The brain loves to think its way towards improvement, but there’s no better way to improve than doing. In martial arts, this is rolling, sparring, or drilling the thing you’re trying to get better at. But in general terms, practicing is the true method for quick improvement in any discipline. Your brain is the tool you have to approach problems and try to solve them, but it’s the repetition of the action that will get you results.
As you drive the vehicle that is your body and mind, it’s going to need time to rest and refuel.
This is where the desire to be curious about your craft and a love for study will take you very far, very quickly. Once it’s time to rest and your body can’t go anymore, mental exercises like positive thinking, actualization, and visualization will take you the rest of the way.
Image from PowerTraining’s video on Ilia Topuria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmW4b2cGBRI
As you receive knowledge from either your coach or a tutorial, you need to quickly implement it to patch up any holes in your game. Being coachable on your flaws, and executing on what you know how to do well. Once you have something that you do well, the reward of feeling proficient is one of the best feelings ever.
But I’m getting off-track. The lesson I’m trying to impart in this newsletter is that you need to become content with the small things. If you’re able to do that, you can push yourself to conquer any challenge life might present to you, because you aren’t seeing it in that way. It’s not a mountain to overcome; it’s just a repeated motion that you’ve practiced a million times. You won’t sweat any major production or competition, because you’ve been there before in the practice room.
In Japanese culture, this concept is known as Ikigai.
Ikigai is when you find satisfaction in doing the little things in life. You eliminate the desire to need more and more, instead looking at your life in the present moment and building pride in living a fulfilling life.
I was first introduced to this concept 5 years ago, and it’s completely changed my life. This book, Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, highlights what it takes to live a long life full of satisfaction and ease. I recommend you read the full thing to get a deeper look into achieving this for yourself, but the major points are:
Achieving Ikigai: The central theme, meaning "a reason for being" or "the happiness of always being busy," which provides motivation and purpose.
Longevity: Studying the long lives of people in Okinawa, a region with a high percentage of centenarians.
Practical advice: It covers lifestyle elements like eating light, staying active, nurturing friendships, and finding flow in daily tasks.
Flow State: A state of complete absorption in an activity, which the authors link to achieving ikigai.
Community: The importance of strong social connections and a sense of belonging is highlighted.
This concept is embodied at the highest level by Japanese boxer Naoya Inoue.
Watching one of his fights after my boxing class brought the inspiration for this newsletter.
Inoue is a 4-division world champion who was able to live his entire life from his youth practicing these concepts. While he may not have been conscious of it at the time, his father, Shingo Inoue, was. He instilled in him (and his other son, Takuma, also a world champion boxer) that hard work and dedication to endlessly repeating the fundamentals would bring success in life.
There’s a hidden spiritual and philosophical element to training that I didn’t realize before. It comes out in the reflection and study of the game, and you begin to grow a new appreciation for your body, mind, and spirit being sound. I wanted to share with you those lessons today.
In whatever goal you’re looking to accomplish, dive fully into it using the benefits of a concept like Ikigai to not only achieve success, but to be content while you’re pursuing it.
This newsletter is as much a message to you, the reader, as it is to me. I’ve spent too much of my life avoiding my true calling and filling in time just beating boredom instead of discovering my authentic self.As a content creator, my goal is to help people better know themselves and live out their vision of who they want to be, all while avoiding the many roadblocks in life preventing them from doing so. Like, Follow, Subscribe, and share this if you support that message. Check the description for my newsletter as well, Thank you!
