Does It Count

I heard someone talking recently about how she gives herself credit for everything.  At 65, practicing Ju Jitsu, she allows herself credit for things that she wouldn’t have considered a big deal at 20.

“If I get to class, I get credit.”

“If I washed my uniform in preparation for class, I get credit.”

What she was really talking about was celebrating even the small wins… because sometimes the smallest step takes a lot of effort.

And it got me thinking…When do I really deserve the credit?

When we roll through the day on autopilot...no thought, no resistance, just doing...the day feels easy. No struggle. No challenge. Is that good… or bad?  We also hear a lot about “effortless effort.” But sometimes, when things become effortless, it’s also a signal that we’ve reached a fork in the road… and if we're not careful, effortless can turn into mindless.

So again…When do I really deserve the credit?

It’s obvious that credit is deserved in the hard choices.  In the moments where I pause, consider doing nothing… and choose action anyway.

But what about the things that come easy?  What about the things I’m naturally good at?  Or the habits I’ve built through discipline?

If I roll out of bed and do 20 pushups without thinking anymore… that’s a good thing, right?  I’m not really convincing myself in that moment...but there was definitely a time that I did.

So maybe that counts too...because these “easy” actions were built on a foundation of hard ones.  There used to be days where it wasn’t automatic.  

So maybe there are two kinds of credit.

The credit I earn right now, when I make the hard choice.

And the credit I carry forward, from the hard choices I’ve already made.

Both matter.  

Both count.  

Because none of it was ever accidental.

Issues = Progress

I had a 1-on-1 recently. Before it, I took a video of my form and sent it in as a reference for discussion. The session was great—lots of useful feedback, and plenty of things for me to work on.

But I found myself chuckling a bit.

I can remember back to my white, yellow, and orange belt days. Even then, I had the habit of taking videos and asking for feedback. But the responses were very different. They were usually along the lines of:

“Everything looks really good—just keep at it.”

“I can’t offer much for feedback, keep doing what you’re doing.”

“Other than a small adjustment here, you’re on the right track.”

Now, as I’ve moved up the ranks, the lists I get back seem to be getting longer and longer.

At first glance, that feels a bit backwards.  More experience…more things to fix?  I trust that I’m not somehow getting worse. So the only conclusion is that the more things I can find (or be shown) to improve, the more progress I’m actually making.

It’s not that the flaws are new.  But I imagine my ability to understand, and analyze them, is.

This really clicked for me when I looked at it from the instructor side.

With lower-level students (especially younger ones), I try to limit feedback to simple, foundational points. Not because there’s nothing else to correct—but because anything beyond that wouldn’t be helpful yet.  But with higher-level students, the approach shifts.  They’re still working on the same fundamentals. But now I can add in more details because they have the capacity to understand and apply them.

More issues = more progress...or maybe the other way around depending on which way I'm looking at it.  Either way, I'm taking the most recent laundry list as a compliment.

Just In Case!!

 I had hoped to write my blog earlier today, but that’s didn’t work out. I’m still hoping to do it later tonight, but we also have some guests coming over. So I’m posting my numbers just in case my good intentions don’t work out!!!

Failing Would Imply Trying

Today's meeting was really good for me.  It pointed a giant spot light at exactly where I'm failing.  Actually no.  Failing isn't the right word.  Failing is a positive thing and would imply that I was actually trying.  That's not the case here.  

There are a couple things on my personal requirements that I had completely removed from my list.  My super duper justifiable thought was "I'm injured and can't do these things".  Which is and isn't true.  Yes, I perhaps can't do them in the way I had intended.  But I can certainly revamp some things so that I'm still taking some steps forward and honouring the original spirit of the goal.  And here's the interesting part.  Everything else on my list I'm still doing....injury be damned.  I'm still working on my forms.  Still plucking away at the other numbers, even though many are physical.  I've had to modify before for my foot surgery, and other minor injuries, so it's commonplace to do that.  And so I thought to myself, why didn't I just find a way to modify these things too??  Why was it so easy for me to make an excuse?  And I think the difference with these was that one hadn't even been started yet...and I was only a couple weeks into the other that I hadn't even really formed a good consistent habit yet.  So it wasn't all that hard to push them aside and say "I'll get started when I am better".  Everything else is pretty established in my training and has been modified in the past.  So it wasn't even a thought to not keep going with those.  But these were new things....and to be honest, it really wasn't hard to make the excuse.  I almost welcomed it because it felt like an "easy out".

Yikes.  

So yeah.  This was a good shake up to get me thinking about how these things can look instead, for the time being at least.

As was said in the meeting,

The why is more important than the what.

Check-in

With my in-laws visiting this week, things have been pretty busy.  This will just be a quick check in.

PU 6578

SU 6312

DMH 129

Bo Staff 126

AOK 137

Sparring 67