Ego

I conduct a black belt grading once every year and holes in my teaching process are brought to the forefront each time. No matter how well you think your students are prepared, something always slips through the cracks.

Technique mastery only comes in phases. It is critical that form must be perfected before all else. There is no use in executing with speed and power, let alone realism, if the fundamentals of a technique have not been mastered first. I have a few students, always male, who are always too psyched about getting to realism that they never completely master the nuances of a technique. I have drilled it through their heads that they must slow down to perfect their method before progress can be made. You can lead a horse to water but . . .

Ego can be such a detriment to self improvement. I shudder when I think of all the opportunities I have missed by interpreting what my teachers had been trying to pass on to me rather than just absorbing. I realize now that the why was never as important as I thought it was. Arrogance is very limiting. Don’t think, just do.

“Give up all bad qualities in you, banish the ego and develop the spirit of surrender. You will then experience Bliss.” - Sri Sathya Sai Baba (b. 1926)