A very talented young teenager spoke to me about her struggles with continued martial arts training last night.
She felt like she wasn’t seeing tangible results from taking classes and didn’t feel very motivated to continue because of it.
She’s fit. She’s very flexible. And she’s well coordinated.
…Class-to-class, she wasn’t seeing any noticeable differences in these area—and with no tangible changes, why work so damn hard?
What I spent a solid 20 minutes talking to her about were intangible changes that come with work ethic and dedicated commitment. The obscure—only noticeable to the trained inner eye—changes that happen within.
We talked about further developing the ability to perform under pressure (and how that relates to the high pressure careers she’s aiming for)… her confidence in being able to defend against bigger, stronger, faster assailants… about having a creative outlet for self-expression (something she admitted she didn’t have outside of martial arts)… about having a safe space for mental health breaks/resets… And finally, we talked about legacy and if she was 70 years old looking back on this stage of her life, if she would regret not pushing herself further to see what she was truly capable of… she said she would.
When we don’t try very hard it’s easy to get lost in appearances.
…To judge progress solely on tangibles. To judge a book by its cover. To determine worth based on social media metrics.
But, if we try a little harder… if we look a little closer… we’ll see there’s a whole (inner) world of data to be processed and developed.
…Which might turn out to be the most tangible indicators of progress of all.