I trained in martial arts for many years, primarily in Shotokan Karate, Kendo and Yang Tai Chi. I was pondering my years of training today as I wrote the second-to-last chapter of my newest book, Katana, A Life on the Edge.
It occurred to me that there is much chat about the virtues of failing. In my experience, failure is a limiting perspective. Was yesterday a failure when an olympic athlete acheives a personal best today? Is it ever possible to perform certain movements to perfection? If I have heard it once, I have heard it a thousand times. "Perfection is a road, not a destination." But what is perfection if not an arbitrary definition of the art of practice?
I would venture further. The Way of Mastery is the Way of Practice. Practice does not make perfect. It makes the Master.
What have you mastered lately? And even so, are there not more levels, more challenges, more experiences to be enjoyed?
The I Ching states "Perseverance Furthers." I quite agree. Perseverance has to do with learning... Failure is a term whose presence denies an imagined illusion of success.
Keep practicing! True Mastery awaits your presence.
