Motivation and Personal Growth: Less Goku, More Ichigo

I grew up watching what would probably be considered an unhealthy amount of cartoons and anime. I grew up in the era that was dominated by the big three: Naruto, One Piece and Bleach. 

The main character of One Piece , Monkey D. Luffy, had a goal to become the pirate king. While Naruto’s goal was to become Hokage. And it was that journey to achieving those goals that really drove their stories forward. At that time, I didn't really appreciate what made Bleach's Ichigo different to Naruto or Luffy. As I grew older, I realised that for Ichigo, there wasn’t someone who he initially wanted to beat. In the simplest of explanations, he was just a strong kid who sought to protect those close to him. He just got swept up into all these different situations trying to keep things as they were. His willpower and determination forced him to grow and to conquer despair, coming out victorious over enemies that, initially, were several leagues above him. He was fine with being a high-school student, but was compelled to constantly grow to the situations at hand. 

I used to identify with Ichigo in that respect. But nowadays I find myself growing past growing to accomplish a simple goal and just being satisfied with that. For example, recently I got a 2:1 in my 2^nd year exams, and I was hella hyped (cue one of the messiest nights of my life.....so far...). However, I immediately started thinking about where to move on from there? what I can do next? How can I build on this achievement?

My hunger and the way I approach things is going past thinking “what can I accomplish” to, “what’s next from here?”.

So translating all of that in terms of my approach to martial arts is pretty easy but is probably best done with a bit of a story:
I had a Taekwondo tournament this year. And when it came to training for this tournament i was training just to win. At the time, that kind of training was sufficient. However, I managed to come away from the tournament with a silver medal.

Why?

 Honestly, it was a combination of nerves and inexperience.  Being 5”8 and after a year of half-assed bulking, I’m confined to fighting tall people at this point. My current philosophy when it comes to succeeding is to put yourself in a position where the possibility of being denied no longer exists. Because of that, I’m able to trust myself to adopt this “What’s next?” outlook. And yes, I could easily say that I didn’t train to the point where I could not be denied, but it’s a little bit more annoying than that.

 I trained simply to win the tournament.  To beat my perception of the strongest person in my group. When I should’ve been training harder in order to challenge the next level of opponent . Training to the point where even when facing a taller opponent, shouldn't have been too much trouble. To the degree that the notion of being nervous should have been laughable. I probably should’ve sought some sparring advice from the black belts, and if they were kind enough, tried sparring with them. Again, I recognise how basic this method is, but what is more important is the thought process behind it. The notion of training to the point where victory can no longer be denied. Gaining confidence and belief in my abilities to the extent that i'm ready to achieve my initial goal and thoughts of where to go next are on the fringes of my mind. This was the biggest lesson that coming in 2^nd place in the tournament had taught me.

Because I'm finally beginning to adopt this way of approaching things, no matter how often (and it's fairly often) I mess up with my diet, or if I miss a day of training, while it can be demoralising, my determination to put myself into a position to where I cannot be denied keeps me coming back at it over and over again. When i miss a day at the gym, i do something else instead, I work more on my flexibility, I go for a jog, i go through my workout diary and try to see where I can improve on my shortfalls, maybe i'll even study that much harder to compensate.


My approach to things may be a mismatch of of philosophies with glaring flaws. But it's only something that can be improved and refined through actually going out and doing things. Maybe eventually, i'll write up a huge retraction detailing how stupid i was when i was 20. Who knows?