ROW, ROW, ROW!

 By Phillip Starr

In many ways, life and following the martial path is much like being cast into the sea (of life) in a rowboat. The sea is vast and you cannot possibly imagine everything that it contains. Many of us are perfectly content to lay back in the boat and let the water take us where it will. Tossed about by the waves, we hope for the best and keep our heads down.

But if we do that, we'll likely never arrive at our destination. “Going with the flow” is, in my opinion, a very foolish saying much of the time. We need to set a course for a particular objective (harbor) and work diligently towards it.

It's essential that we periodically peer over the gunwales (pronounced “gun'ls” and meaning the sides of the boat/ship for you rednecks) to see just where we're going. And periodically, maybe for extended lengths of time (depending on the wind and water) we're going to have to paddle and sweat. A lot.

I once asked a lovely Chinese lady what she planned to do with her life. “I just go with the flow” she shrugged. She was currently employed working in the back warehouse of a local Wal-Mart. I told her that unless she had a specific goal AND a plan to reach it, she may well be stuck working in that warehouse for a very long time. She just shrugged again. Sad. That was many years ago and unless she's changed her attitude, I'm fairly sure she's still there...

So it is with martial arts training and life. Don't train just to be doing it or to engage with your classmates. Train for yourself with a goal in mind. Otherwise, you're just drifting in a small boat, letting the wind and waves take you where they will. You need to look at where you are and where you want to go, then grab the oars.

If you agree with this, please be sure to apply it to your training...and your life.