One of my biggest achievement in 2017 was learning Taekwando, a martial art originated from Korea.
My fiancé “encouraged” me into this, haha because it was one of his unfulfilled dreams when he was a teenager. An accident happened cause him to stop learning when he was 17 years old.
I guess 10 years later, he realised he doesn’t wanna leave any regrets behind, and so he decided to pick up this martial art again, and dragged me into it.
Surprisingly, Taekwando turns out pretty interesting to me, and I did not regret learning it.
Our Taekwando class is held every Thursday and Sunday. That’s pretty much my routine every week.
Every Sun morning, you must be thinking that I can’t wait to jump out of bed and go to class since I like the training so much.
As much as I love to reach that kind of enthusiasm, to be honest, I dragged myself to training every single week.
The classes started at 10am, and ends at 12pm.
I look forward to 12pm so much because I look forward to the lunch more than the training. 😅The warm ups is strenuous enough to kill you.
But as soon as the training ends, I could not help but felt great every time, for I felt refreshed, and felt that I have used the time productively instead of sleeping in.
As I reflected upon the training as I write this, I realised how much this martial art has shaped me, both physically, and socially, and also my attitude and character.
Being a discipline body, we have to respect our masters and seniors.
We have to bow to them everytime we come in to class and when we leave.
Despite your seniors are younger than you, but because they hold a higher belt, we have to respect them irregardless.
Slowly as the year went by, this bunch of training comrades have become a community to us.
Last week, our Master actually asked us to jot down our ambitions and goals for the year.
I challenged myself to see how far I could go, and test to see where my limit is.
These are the competitions we aim to join this year. I’ve signed myself up for something I never would in the past, well nothing to lose right?
Beyond the kicks, the punches, cartwheels, breaking planks, and stretching, I guess what I truly learnt from this martial art is the grit, the perseverance, discipline, desperation to overcome challenges and the resilience to push yourself that nobody can.
Like what my Master says,
“Champions aren’t made in gym. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the last minute stamina. They have to be a little faster, and they have to have the skill and the will.
BUT the will must be STRONGER than the skill.”
Do you have something within you that you wish to conquer?
Perhaps 2018 would be the year of breakthrough! :)
credit to 