Are you progressing?

Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.

Arthur Ashe

The question of belt gradings and ranks in general has been on my mind lately.

I'm wondering if its my age showing but chasing the belt is not as important to me as it was, say, 20 or 25 years ago, when it served as a great motivator.

Somehow the adolescent mind draws it own conclusions that to possess, then seemingly, super-human abilities, poise, control, reflex, reactions and all the other admirable qualities which made up a martial artist was in the domain of the feared black belt.

That singular piece of cloth represented or endowed its wearer some awesome skill in personal confidence, strength, agility and cat-like reflexes. Or at least that was what I thought. Hollywood and dozens of martial arts magazines (oh, how I miss Fighting Arts International) reinforced that point. The culture at my old karate club evolved around who had it and who didn't. If you didn't have one, you wanted it and if you did have one, there was some mystical aura which surrounded and elevated you above the commoner. It distinctly marked your status as "above average" or something like that.

Fast forward 25 years later and here we are.

I have that piece of cloth hanging up on the wall. It hasn't made me better, smarter, more respected nor any of the characteristics which one thinks of when you speak of a "black belt".

What has made the difference in shaping my thoughts, my focus and physically was the process and journey it took for me to get there. A sword, it is said, is as strong as the fire it was forged in. By the hands of a skilled smith and expertly wielded by a master.

As the late Mr. Ashe succinctly put it, one must realize that it is the journey, the forging which allows the steel to be forged, the smithy to form the sword and the master to swish it about and lopping off bodily parts (that's what swords were designed to do no?)

Consider yourself a success. Whether or not you have been awarded the recognition with a piece of black cloth which you may (not not) wear ceremoniously a couple of days a week at a group meeting to denote pecking order.
If you had traveled well in your personal journey, took the necessary precautions and supplies, you should have reached milestone after milestone.

Where and when does your journey end? No one knows. I'm still on my journey 25 years on and the road has taken for a steep and narrow climb up hill. I'm not liking what I see yet I strangely feel compelled to continue to see where the road takes me.

I see traffic congestions, bad, crowded roads with poor weather and non-existent road signs ahead. I feel like pressing on because I know that the weather will let up, the traffic will clear and I will reach a point where the road smooths out and I will be able to see for miles ahead in beautiful weather. Soon.

Internally, in my mind, upstairs, I'm already there. I've become the sword which was expertly forged, smithed and wielded.
The rites of passage is familiar as I've learnt from lessons past in life and from the mats that the journey is internal. It has nothing to do with you stepping on the mats and throwing a thousand punches or performing 500 armbars. It starts with your mind engaging and your willingness to "jump in".

All those cliche's about the greatest journey starting with a single step is true but the first step started when you thought about it.




After all the journey, in whatever direction you take leads you in circles. This and all known planets are circular. We traverse and cross time zones, national borders and all forms of barriers from one side to the other. We walk in circles.

In the martial arts communities and subculture, its all about centering, balance and returning to the circle. Karma is circular. The ebb and flow of nature follows this form.

And as we begin as novices in the martial arts, we should end as novices in the martial arts to complete the circle (which we will ~ like it or not) because the more we know, the more we realize we don't know. So the point of all this is the journey as we progress, we learn, we change and we become.

What will the belt mean to you? What will it mean to you wife, girlfriend, parent or friend. How about a passer-by, a complete stranger who is unfamiliar with martial arts culture?

What will it mean to you in 1 year, 3 years, 10 years or 20 years' time?

Best training. Live the journey.