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THE BLACK BELT ATTITUDE

 

Becoming a black belt is no easy task.  One must overcome physical and mental challenges, grow in character and overcome limiting beliefs.  Yet upon its achievement, perhaps even more important than the belt they are honoured to wear is the person they have become. 

 

So how might one define a black belt attitude?  Some view it as an unwavering feeling from within that empowers self-confidence.  Others may say it’s an optimistic outlook that influences the way they view the world around them.  Whatever the view point, most black belts would agree that having a lack belt attitude is an intangible benefit, giving those bestowed happier and more fulfilled lives. 

 

The real question is:  “Does one need to be a black belt to develop a black belt attitude?”  Fortunately the answer is “No”.  Obtaining a black belt, going through the grading and the years of training endows a student with many lessons that they can take into their lives.  However, a person is able to learn these lessons at any stage in their journey. As you grow in your karate training, your black belt attitude will shape and develop its own special meaning for you.  It will empower you with optimism, confidence and perhaps simply…happiness.          

 

I remember way back in my early days of training, Shihan Stacey Karetsian would tell us that to train as though we were black belts.  In terms of ability, a black belt is the pinnacle in karate training and considering we all wished to become the best we possibly could be we all trained like black belts.  This habit helped many of us develop very quickly in our training.  So too with our attitudes, we were fortunate enough to train regularly under the likes of Kancho and Shihan and modelled our attitudes on theirs.  By developing a black belt attitude early on we experienced more fulfilling training and lives as a result.

 

There are a number of key elements common among the attitudes of most black belts. Over the coming months we will share a number of these to help you start to develop your own ‘Black Belt Attitude’.

 

Black Belt Attitude Number One: 

 

Persistence

Martial arts training is about teaching us that we can achieve great things.  Becoming a black belt is your recognition that you can attain an extraordinary goal.  The fact that a person made the decision to obtain a black belt is one thing, but to then persist until it is achieved is admirable.  It is not only saying “Yes, I can achieve success”, but it also says “I will achieve success”. 

 

Unfortunately this ‘attitude’ is a rare characteristic in people. It is more common to be uncertain than it is to be self-assured and confident.  One of our goals as instructors is to help our students develop a black belt attitude so that they may attain their full potential – in karate and life.

 

Remember the old adage “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again”.  This saying demonstrates part of the black belt attitude.  The average person has been taught that failing is ‘bad’ rather than every ‘failure’ is a learning experience.  Therefore, sadly, some people do not try at all and many do not try more than once.

 

Any Black Belt has had down times in their training: periods of sickness or injury, periods where work or school was getting on top of them.  Perhaps they even failed a grading or they had periods where it would have been easier just to quit – Instead they persisted!

 

Therefore the first ingredient for obtaining a black belt is persistence.  Every Black Belt has developed this.  Yet outside of the dojo, persistence plays an equally important role.  Napolian Hill once wrote a very famous book where he studied 500 of the most successful people on the planet.  In the end, he concluded that there was one single trait that every single one of these 500 people possessed -Persistence! 

 

Any person who possesses the ‘power of persistence‘ is more akin to a successful and happier life.  Persistence is just one of the benefits to developing your black belt attitude.  

 

Black Belt Attitude

Our attitude is a direct reflection of our character and beliefs. It can lift us up to a life of fulfilment and success or can hold us back to a life of mediocrity and malcontent. There is an old adage, “If you want more than you’ve got, you must first become more than you are”.

 

Furthermore, our attitude is essentially what people will judge us on most, and it is principally through our attitude, that we judge others. Therefore, in life there is no one thing that is more paramount to develop than our attitude. 

 

Fortunately, a person’s journey in karate is full of life-lessons that by the time black belt is reached, they have been endowed with empowering attitudes that can carry them forward through their lives.

 

Last month, we kicked off this series by covering ‘Persistence’.  As we now break into stride, the second key attitude we will look at is that of ‘Self-discipline’.

 

This section is written by Anthony Ryan. Anthony has been with GKR for over 10 years and currently works with Shihan in special projects including the Shimbun Magazine. Anthony is also the current New South Wales State Team coach.

 

Part Two:   ‘Self-Discipline’

Dr Norman Vincent Peel said “Of all the key attitudes, discipline is the most important to develop, for with discipline we can achieve all the other attitudes and with discipline we can achieve all things.”

 

So what is self-discipline?  It is a willingness to perform the acts that are beneficial to us that, for whatever reason, we don’t want to perform. 

 

Today discipline is in short supply. Perhaps this is because its importance is not stressed highly enough while we are growing up. We primarily associate it to hardship and in today’s world we are too easily influenced by a superficial psychology. We have abhorred restraint and indulged in instant gratification. We tend to forget that anything worthwhile and significant in life requires self-discipline.

 

Self-discipline is vital to the student who wishes to pass the exam, vital to the athlete to perfect their game, vital to the pianist who wishes to practise for a concert, vital to the captain to run the ship. If you want anything in life, it requires a plan for its achievement and a follow through on that plan.  This only comes with self-discipline.

 

When we first start karate we find external discipline.  It comes from our instructor who reminds us to respond, to stand straight, not to fidget, to “kiai on 10”, to push through, to give it our best, to be respectful, humble and positive in our lives. 

 

These reminders will continue throughout our training as long as they are required. Over time however, we move from an external discipline source to an internal source (self-discipline).  This rarely occurs all at once but generally happens over 3 levels.  There is no real time frame for when a student moves up these levels as each student moves at their own rate.  However, by simply being aware of these, a student may move forward sooner than expected.

 

The Three levels of self-discipline

 

Level 1. 

We start applying self-discipline to things that offer little challenge to our inner voice.  We make sure we are standing straight in line, we don’t fidget, we respond and we kiai. Yet when we are tired and our voice says to slow down and take it easy, we still rely on our instructor to help motivate us to push through.

 

Level 2.

We make a conscious decision to be serious karate-ka.  We understand that self-discipline is a big part of being a martial artist.  We therefore apply discipline over our inner voice.  When we are tired we tell it to be quiet and push on.  We stay in a deep stance even when our instructor is looking away because it is now about us, not just impressions. We may even start training at home where no instructor is present to get us started.

 

Level 3.

This is where we realise that the discipline we have developed in karate is not only for the dojo but for our lives.  We start applying discipline to everything we do.  We become punctual, true to our word, tidier, we eat better, we apply it to other skills we must learn etc. 

 

Any person that has achieved their black belt knows well the importance of self-discipline and appreciates what it brings.  You too can start to lead a life of self-discipline today! 

 

Part Three:   ‘A can-do attitude’

For the most part, black belts tend to exude an air of self-confidence.  Not to be confused with arrogance, this attitude shines apparent in everything they do. In general, they approach life with a sense of enthusiasm because they know and understand that whatever challenges life throws their way, they are up to the task of handling it.

 

Sadly, this attitude is somewhat rare nowadays.  Most people in the Western-World are quick to criticise themselves and find it difficult to receive compliments. They rarely approach life with enthusiasm and tend to over-stress at challenges.

 

So what is it that sets a black belt apart?  And how can someone develop a ‘can-do attitude’ before achieving his or her black belt?   

 

I once read that we are all born to win and conditioned to fail.  By the time we are 5  yrs old we have been told the word “No” thousands of times.  Along with this we repeatedly hear “Don’t do that” and “You cant do that”.  As we grow and become teenagers we are more concerned with fitting in than achieving. So we start focusing on our short falls and our failures as opposed to our successes.  As we venture into adulthood this focus becomes habit.

 

We could list a dozen of our flaws in a minute but struggle to think of 3 of our strengths. We become our number one critic; we are never tall enough, thin enough, smart enough or simply…good enough. 

 

So what changes when we train in karate?

 

Overcoming challenges

By the time a person reaches black belt they can look back and see a journey ridden with challenges. Challenges to do with fitness, fears (of sparring, grading etc), difficult kata, periods of waning motivation, times where they felt they were going backwards etc. Yet more importantly they can look back and see a path of challenges overcome. Each time they were tested they rose to the occasion and overcame the challenge.

 

No person can overcome so many challenges and not have it rub off on their overall self-image. When we repeatedly overcome, we begin to see ourselves as a person who is capable of tackling life and all of its challenges.

 

Kizen

For most sports, sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. But karate is ongoing. There is no winning or losing, there is simply constant improvement. The Japanese call this ‘kizen’. We train to improve - Not to win!  When there are no losses, and only constant minor successes, we are now unable to look back at our failures and shortcomings, because everything ends with a success, with a positive. We now look back and see how we have gone from being a shaky beginner to becoming a well-respected martial artist.

 

We know not only see ourselves as a person who can overcome challenges but as a person who is capable of tackling new tasks competently before challenges even hit.  From here we develop a can-do attitude.

 

So perhaps you are still on your journey to black belt. And perhaps you have yet to face your toughest grading.  But make no mistake; everything you have achieved so far is admirable. You have overcome challenges and grown beyond belief.  Its time to recognise your achievements and the person you have become.

Sensei Anthony Ryan