Perseverance
By Christopher Danello
Charles Swindle
said, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to
it.” This is the concept behind the Kishaba Juku rule: “Fall 7,
Rise 8.” That rule has become a mantra for me. I keep it as a
sign on my desk. Whenever I find myself running into a wall –
which is often – I remind myself to fall seven, but rise
eight. Perseverance is defined as a steady course of action despite
obstacles. Life puts up walls. Survival of the fittest is not so
much won by the strongest or the smartest. It’s more often won by
the more dogged and relentless. The one that continues to rise.
One of the things I found while searching for the Perseverance Kanji,
was that it is often associated with the Kanji for Patience. This is
no accident as Perseverance teaches the hard lesson of Patience.
This is one of the main lessons I have learned through Karate. It’s
easy to get frustrated with the very slow and difficult uphill climb
in learning Kishaba Juku Karate. I have heard this mentioned over
the years from other members who came from other disciplines. This
is not a quick fix study. It’s not a place for Rank Collectors.
It is a long, slow, methodical process that will only take time.
It’s easy to walk away when the walls appear. This is where you
must cultivate the Patience to Persevere. From what I’ve heard,
Kishaba Juku is structured for just that purpose. It’s no accident
that Kishaba Juku deemphasizes the rank of colored belts; having just
the four from white to black. I think back to the story I heard that
the Kishaba Juku belt is really the same belt that has worn and
stained over the years. First turning green from tumbles outside.
Later to brown as the stains age and new ones are added. Then
finally to black as stains and age compound. The underlying theme of
that story is that Kishaba Juku takes time. It takes Perseverance.
One of the
obstacles I’ve experienced in Kishaba Juku is constant challenge;
the constant sense of starting over. One way this has manifested is
in my lack of experience. Most of the people I’ve come to know in
Kishaba Juku, came to this study from another discipline – Shotokan
being the most prevalent name I’ve heard. I have no previous
background in any form of martial art. I came to Kishaba Juku
completely wet behind the ears. Watching others adopt styles and
moves (seemingly) with ease has been hard at times. Again and again,
I found myself frustrated because it didn’t seem to come to me “so
easily”. I had to remind myself that it’s not coming to
them so easily to them; and it hadn’t in the past. They are on a
different path than I am – or at least a different part of the
path. So again, it comes back to time and Patience. Another way
I‘ve seen constant challenge is in the fact that nothing is ever
truly conquered. Nothing is ever complete. That’s a hard pill to
swallow. No kata is ever truly “mastered”. There are always
refinements to be made. Or the kata changes in subtle ways. Or when
I reach a comfort level in one kata, there’s a new one to learn –
each one making me feel like a novice all over again. There’s
never really a point where you cross the finish line and think
“There, I’m done.”. Like many, I think I came to Kishaba Juku
believing Shodan was the end goal. Over time, I’ve learned how far
from the truth this is. It’s not an end; it’s a signpost to the
next part of the journey – with more Falls to Rise from. As I
approach Shodan, I realize I don’t have the Grand Knowledge I
thought I’d have at this point. Instead a I have a grasp of how
much more I have to learn. Always at these times, I remember the
Peaceful Warrior saying, “Shodan is when you start learning.”.
I now see Shodan much more as a new beginning and new growth; the
next phase. Again, it comes back to time; which comes back to
Patience and Perseverance.
Another obstacle
I’ve faced (and this has really come out in Karate) is
myself. So much more than the running or weight lifting, Karate is
where I see that I need to learn how to get out of my own way. One
way this manifests is in me is in self fulfilling prophecy (psyching
myself out). I’ve noticed that often the truly easy moves have
tripped me up every bit as much as the really difficult ones. I
remember early on, that I just could not get the move in
Fukyugata Ichi after the second high block turning into the series of
reverse punches. I could never set my feet properly. I literally
couldn’t figure out what move preceded that series. Finally one
night, Mike saw me struggling and said, “Hey man, you’re over
thinking it. You just shift your right foot over; that’s it.”
But I had convinced myself that there had to be something more
complex there. It couldn’t be that simple. And yet it was.
A similar move tripped up in Gojushiho as well. That scenario has
replayed itself time and time again through the years. It has
revealed a weakness in me and demonstrates how Perseverance is a
lesson I continue to need. I continue to convince myself that I just
can’t do it; that it’s too hard. In the absence of walls, I put
up my own. Another lesson in getting out of my head has been in
learning to see failure as a part of the process. Like Shodan,
failure is not an end point. It’s an opportunity for improvement.
That too has become a favorite saying of mine as people who’ve
taken my classes will attest. Failure was often been the ultimate
wall for me. Walking away became a skill of its own. More than with
other endeavors, Karate has taught me that failure is a stepping
stone. It’s literally a chance to step back and say, “Why didn’t
that work? Where to next?”. That is the lesson of Perseverance;
not breaking the walls or ignoring them, but find the way around them
through relentless pursuit. And it’s a lesson I’m still
learning.
Probably the main
way Karate and the lesson of Perseverance has influenced me in other
parts of my life would be the weight loss. This was a classic
example of an area where I allowed the walls to turn me back. Time
and again I gave up because it was too hard, and took too much effort
for what I saw as too little result. I wanted it right away, just
like I wanted Shodan right away. However, while learning this
process of Patience and Perseverance in Karate, I began to apply
those principles to diet and nutrition. I stopped trying to find the
magic bullet or the grand effort that would turn my life on a dime.
I instead began to focus on the gradual collection of methods and
moves; adding new techniques to earlier learned techniques, the same
as we do in Kishaba Juku. Friends talk about my weight loss as if it
was a night and day thing. But I tracked the entire process. The
chart stretches across two years. It is a slow gradual downward
slope which is riddled with little turns back upward (failures where
I had to reassess). That was the trick all along, time, Patience and
Perseverance. I had to see the end goal of someday. I had to accept
that where I was now was where I was now. There was nowhere
else to be. I was on a path and had to keep walking. This is by far
the biggest thing I’ve picked up from Kishaba Juku; all things in
time. Arguably, this same lesson is what led to success with running
– this notion of building on successes and learning from failures.
No one just up and runs a marathon. I tell people you have to build
up. Start with running this distance. Then try adding this
much. That’s a lesson I learned from Kishaba Juku. First this
move. Then add this one. Now put them together in this kata. Small
moves. People tell me how ‘disciplined’ I am, but to me, that
is the other side of the coin for Perseverance – Patience on one
side, Discipline on the other. And it’s a lesson I’m nowhere
near done learning.
So where does the
path lead? If Shodan is a signpost, where to next? I find myself
entering a more creative phase in my study of Kishaba Juku. Much
like learning music, learning to play the instrument, eventually, you
have to make the song your own. It has to become a part of you and
your own expression. I feel the same with Karate. I must now learn
to make these moves an extension of myself and not just motions I
memorized. I need to find, not what they mean, but what they mean to
me. Again, this is how I interpreted the Peaceful Warrior’s
statement, “Shodan is when you start learning.”.
And as Kishaba Juku
Karate has influenced other aspects of my life, I’m hoping this
lesson on Perseverance will influence other creative endeavors. This
is the main reason I chose to draw the kanji for Perseverance. It
was miniature lesson in Perseverance. Drawing has never been a
strong suit for me. However it teaches the needed lessons of
Patience and Discipline. It teaches Perseverance. This is something
I have never had in my own preferred creative endeavor, Fiction
writing. I must have a file of no less than 4 dozen half-written
short stories, novel ideas, movies, entire serials; all stopped
before the finish. I have tended to walk away when something got too
bogged down or to tedious or when I just couldn’t figure it out.
Sound familiar?! Most everything for me in Kishaba Juku Karate has
been too hard, tedious or something I just couldn’t get. Time and
again, there have been kata I just hated; mostly because I
couldn’t get my head wrapped around them. And time and again I
have eventually begun to wrap my head around each one and usually the
‘most hated’ has become my ‘favorite’. Lately, I’ve been
asking myself more and more, “Why can’t I apply this same method
to my fiction?”. Everything I need for Fiction is there for me in
Kishaba Juku: structure, building on small concepts, putting things
together, learning from failures, learning Patience, learning
Discipline, learning Perseverance. I read an article where the
narrator was speaking to a writing class and asked them, “How many
of you want to be Writers?”. Many enthusiastic hands. He looked
around, then said, “Now. How many of you want to Write?”.
Hands crept down in slow descent. And there it was, wanting and
doing are two different things. I would have been one of the
descending hands. People want the short route whenever possible. In
Kishaba Juku, there is no short route. It must unfold in a
natural progression. It unfolds slowly and gradually, but it does
unfold. I need to bring the lessons of Patience and Discipline –
Perseverance to my fiction world. That is the fan to ignite the
sparks that I’ve to often stared at thinking, “What if?”.
I find myself
looking at Kishaba Juku with a sense of rebirth. I now see a path
that stretches further into the distance than I had realized before.
The journey is truly just beginning. I have at least a glimpse of how
vast this terrain really is and how much more there is to learn.
That’s what I’ve picked up in Kishaba Juku. The lesson is never
truly complete. There is always somewhere to tweak, a variation of a
move, a new way to look at a kata, the resurrection of an old way.
There is always somewhere else to take it. Perhaps perpetual motion
is the essential definition of Perseverance – never stopping.
