Life comes at us fast, and sometimes takes us far afield from the dojo. When it does, passion fades. Keep yours alive by continuing your training in karate at home in our Digital Dojo.
Without the regular practices and camaraderie of your sensei and fellow students, there’s little to keep you working toward keeping what you’ve got, much less working to get better. Other things somehow take its place — but never fill the void left by its absence.
Some don’t seem to care, and let their hard-earned proficiency fade away as life takes them in other directions. For others — like me — it’s always there, whispering in their ears, calling them back to the love of their lives that’s now missing.
It can manifest in many ways. Sometimes it means finding another style, system or teacher. Sometimes it means having to go it alone, doing the best they can with what they’ve got to keep the flame flickering.
I did it both ways, but more often than not found myself having to do it by myself — thus the idea behind Goju at Home to help others have an easier time of it.
As always, though, martial arts was just another vehicle for knowing and challenging myself to become more. Doing it alone at home was the ultimate test, with no one else to rely on. Most of the time it was just me and that voice that whispered inside to “get up and get to work.”
Training at home, though, was rarely consistent in either focus or effort. It changed throughout the years as I did. But that seed was always in me, waiting for me to water and nurture it to fruition.
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably got it in you as well. So what are you going to do about it?
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What’s it going to be?
Obviously you’re not ready to ignore it and let it die off. Otherwise why bother reading this, or training in our Digital Dojo?
So the big question for you is, what is the role you want it to have in your life, and what are you willing to do to keep it going and growing?
It is this process of knowing ourselves that makes life such an exhilarating experience. Karate is admittedly just a means to that end, but a dynamic and important one to my health and peace of mind.
I trust that in your moments of reflection you’ll find that it’s important to you, too. Here we’ll provide you tools and workspaces to help you keep it going, and build it from here. But only you can act on it and do whatever it takes to keep it alive.
For more on knowing yourself, visit our sister site at PeaceOptions.com.
There’s nothing we can say or do to get you off the couch or take time from your busy routine to make it happen. The desire, the motivation, and the effort must be yours alone.
Do you have the goju in you? If so, maybe, just maybe, there’s a reason you do. Honor it. Water it. Watch it grow. Keep it a part of you and your life.
God bless you indeed.
— OG Sensei, Goju at Home