By Heather McLean, instructor, Southern Crane Kungfu
Bruce Lee once said: “A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.”
Set yourselves goals for your kungfu in 2012, to keep yourselves motivated and training hard. Don’t become despondent if you don’t reach those goals though, and don’t become complacent if you do; keep your goals as moving targets.
When you turn up to class in 2012, bring a goal with you that will take you forward for the first six to eight weeks of the new year, and one that is more of a long term aim for perhaps six months to a year.
The short term goal may be to lose the mince pie belt you’ve recently attached to your waist over Christmas, or to perfect a certain movement that you have been finding difficult.
The longer term goal may be to shine in your highest pattern with the aim of getting put forward for a grading, to enter a competition with the BCCMA for patterns or sparring, or something more personal, such as improving your long term fitness or improving your confidence.
Whatever your long or short term goals are, set yourself as part of your goals a way of measuring your success in achieving them; while entering competitions or getting into a grading are easy to measure, something such as improving fitness might need you to be able to hold a horse stance for several minutes, run a certain distance, repeat a strenuous pattern multiple times with ease, and more!
Write your goals down and bring them to class. Let your instructors see what they are and we will help you define the parameters, work out how to measure your success, and ultimately, to hit your targets.
Don’t just turn up to kungfu to do some exercise; make it personal. If you want to be good at kungfu, don’t think of it as an alternative to going to the gym, because it isn’t. It’s a way of life and it affects everything you do, whether you want it to or not.
Kungfu gives you time to step out of the rat race to learn about yourself in a way that most people don’t have the opportunity to; value that opportunity, seize it with both hands, and make it yours.
