The Role of Enthusiasm in Training

Enthusiasm is something we all experience when we begin something new. This keeps our interest going while we establish a new routine around that new and exciting experience. With martial arts, it is easy to become so enthused with the training early on that some burnout as a result. Martial arts requires a life-time of study to become truly proficient at the deeper concepts of a system. What is more vital than enthusiasm is temerity. Temerity is having a tenacious, almost audacious, devotion to learning something. Even when we don't understand something or can't do something, we have the temerity to do it anyway so that we will eventually learn it. Some might call it, "being too stupid to quit." There are some fighting systems that are quite easy to learn, and so some would think it strange we study a martial art that requires so much dedication and study. They can't understand why we would choose to study something so difficult. Those people can't see the end result the way we do. We don't just want to learn some fighting techniques, we want to fully embody the ideals of the warriors of old and be more than just competent fighters, we want to be proficient masters of the martial way. Allow enthusiasm to have it's place early on, and guide it into temerity and commitment.