I’ve been participating in the Ultimate Black Belt Test for almost five years now. I’ve witnessed spectacular successes and many failures. The one thing that all the failures had in common was the breaking of the no quitting rule. When you think about it, whether or not you achieve all the goals you set out to achieve, a year dedicated to mastery cannot end in failure if you stay engaged in the process. Stick to the process and progress is guaranteed. The process. That is the secret. The UBBT is not a program you participate in, it is a process you develop. My I Ho Chuan team members (student UBBT team), past and present, continue to struggle with this perspective.
Lifestyle changes are only lifestyle changes if the changes last a lifetime. Temporary change only garners temporary results. If you want to lose weight, any strategies you adopt to lose that weight must be maintained over your lifetime if you want the weight loss to be permanent. Mastery is no different. A Master does not achieve a goal and then immediately revert to a life of accepting average. Mastery is a way of life, not some arbitrary goal recognized by a certificate you hang on a wall.
Something for my 2012 student team to think about — have you transformed yourself over these past seven months? If not, you still have five more to turn this around. Finally, a question for my past student teams. Has the mastery you developed over the course of your challenge become part of you or have you already discarded some of the tools that allowed you to achieve the extraordinary?
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” - Patanjali
4 comments:
The quote you have chosen to use is brilliant.
Thank you
Sifu - I found the UBBT process to be one that has helped me through a difficult time. Earlier this year, I was unable to train at the school very often, and so the processes that I developed during my UBBT last year, helped keep me going, and helped me with my transition back to full time training at the school.
It truly works, you just cannot quit. It's important to focus on your successes and learn from the failures. But you are not a failure at all if you don't quit.
This is my 3rd go around and for me, it's a way of life and also a roadmap for me to incorporate into a way of life in other areas of my life.
Does this mean that it's smooth sailing? NO! I have areas of struggle and bumps, but those areas I look at what's missing, what's needs adjusting and go from there. Out of the murkiness comes clarity and once I have clarity I can implement the action.
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