as a martial arts follower, and someone that practices karate I have always had a strong urge to achieve something in this field, but I've never really known the words to well... to describe the feeling.
When I mean the mind I mean the mental side to our souls and bodies. I dont mean the brain, but the soul and spirit inside the mind. You see:
A very good friend of mine had a trial for our county in Rugby, but turned it down. This was quite some years ago. Now I've managed to persuade him to take up rugby again, but he has just got himself kicked off the team because he has just been kicked out the school temperorily for bad behaviour. I promised him that if he played well or trained hard that I would enter a Karate competetion for the title ' County Champion'. Now - I am only a 5th Kyu (Purple Belt) and this will require fighting Black Belts. I don't suspect I'll win, but it's the dedication - it's the principle that I am willing to do something like that to show him that sacrifises are worth it.
It's just started me thinking - how powerful is the mind? How much can it really achieve? If we try hard enough anything is possible right? I have been reading several books by great Karate masters, and it's astouded me by the dedication in their lifes. Now i've started to change the way I think about things and it's really opened the door to a new style of training. How powerful and effective is the human mind? How much can it really let us achieve? We all here all these fantastic stories about super human power, and all these wonder quotes, but how much of it is real and how can it be used?
To cut a long story short, have you ever had any drives of pure, deep dedication from your mind, or have you ever achieved anything amazing because you believed you could? Because I believe that this is something that we can all do. For instance: in my last Karate grading I was a temporery green belt (6TH KYU).
Now, I was stepping up to the intense training and grading process with that vision - that it was only possible for me to get a temp purple belt (5th kyu) if I got lucky - instead I choose to believe that I could do it, and I managed to get a full belt and a half, making me a full purple belt. I don't believe that I got this high grade through physical efforts, but more through meta-physical drive. I believe it happened because I had the fighting spirit to believe I could do it..
So: tell me what you think;
+How powerful do you think the mind really is?
+Do you think it is capable of anything?
+Do you have any stories?
+Do you believe that you are capable of anything?
Thanks for your time, Achieve.

