Imagine you were attending Harvard Law. You wouldn’t
be humming and hawing from midterm to midterm,
whether or not you were going to follow through to get
your Bachelor’s or Master’s degree.
Getting to Black Belt is no different. You begin with the
end in mind. People start kung fu because they want to
be confident, focused, and disciplined. They want to be
physically and mentally fit. As soon as you start seeing
progress, now you decide if you want to continue to reap
those benefits for yourself or for your child, and if you
want those changes to become permanent. Anyone would
agree that it is foolish to believe that permanent positive
change can come from only a couple months of practice.
Quick fix simply doesn’t work for character building;

Real, life-long change takes long-term commitment and

a clear, challenging goal. Once a person, adult or child,
has committed himself or herself to the pursuit of Black,
it changes the mind, leaving a new electrical pathway in
the brain. Commitment is not a one-time thing, either.
Each time a student decides to leave the comfy couch or
venture into the harsh winter storm to attend their
class, they have recommitted themselves to their goal.
Each decision to carry on when it gets hard actually
deepens and strengthens those pathways in the mind.
That is how self discipline is formed.
Parents can create this pathway in the mind for their
children, but only if the parent is committed to Black
Belt for their child. Children and teens do not have fully
developed brains, and have a very hard time thinking
about 1, 3, 5, 10 years from now. It is the parent’s
solemn duty to extend and lend their discipline to their
child. As a result, the child’s self esteem and self
discipline will blossom and they will start to make
good choices on their own.
When children are repeatedly allowed to abandon their
responsibilities and commitments, it has actually has
negative consequences for the child, such as anxiety
and lowered self esteem. It is actually no different for
an adult in the same situation.
People on the outside of martial arts tend to see the tip
of the ice burg, meaning, they think it’s the height of
your kick, or the shock power of your punch that
matters most. But anyone who’s ever actually
succeeded in martial arts (or any field for that matter)
knows, without a doubt, that skill is the byproduct. it’s
about perseverance and sacrifice; about the time put in,
and the habits established; about the deep change that
takes place in the mind when you earn each belt, all the
way to Black and beyond.
There are really only two options when it comes to kung
fu. Either you will entertain yourself for a little while,
and then have a story of how you used to train and why
you never achieved your Black Belt or the results you
wanted. Or you commit yourself to your goal, and you
keep reaping the numerous benefits of training to be a
Black Belt or Black Sash.