Comments on: How strongly do you wish to succeed in martial arts?

By: James

James — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:02:18 +0000

I have also seen people with obvious ability and natural talent fail to achieve a high degree of success in martial arts (and in life!) just because they don’t have the right attitude (or the ‘will’) to succeed.

By: massimo

massimo — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:30:19 +0000

@ James: I heard many times people saying that you can achieve anything you put your head to it. I can surely see that out of my experience the will to achieve a result is the more powerful component to succeed in martial arts.

@ Sensei Strange: for me success is ultimately achieving what you feel you want to achieve: it’s not matter of belt, money, notoriety or celebrity status.

@ the black sheep: what’s your definition of attitude? To some extent what I define the “will to succeed“ can go hand in and with attitude.

By: the black sheep

the black sheep — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:49:52 +0000

nice. but you forgot ‘attitude’. you can acheive fitness, talent and have all the others. but without the right attitude, none of these will applied when it counts.

its the hardest one to acheive.

By: Sensei Strange

Sensei Strange — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 01:04:10 +0000

Excellent blog.

Another thing we can look at though, what is success? Does it have to be belts or even skill? I consider success in a student is they find the love of the art and they keep showing up year after year. Nothing is more important.

By: James

James — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:14:39 +0000

Hi Massimo, I totally agree with your points here. When I started training Judo at a young age I was fragile and unfit but I really badly wanted to be good! The immense desire to be good gave me the determination necessary to overcome my many problems in the long run. The same has been true since I begun kickboxing as an overweight, unfit, inflexible thirty year old. If I was less determined to be good I would have quit after the first month! After four years I am still not good but the desire to be good still pushes me along!

Maybe it is true that you can have whatever you want if you want it badly enough!