Its about the journey not the destination

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PhotonGuy

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Yup, and I will continue to do so until I get satisfaction.
 

Fungus

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The issue of getting external or public confirmations on your own progress exists in many fields of life, not just in MA.

In choosing profession, education, partners etc there are many factors

Social status (here educational degrees, or MA ranks are important), unless you do fightinh only and get your "social status" by simply winning competitions (medals).

(1) Improve your own self satisfaction, be it to satisfy intellectual satisfaction or satisfaction with having control of your mind and body on a combat situation, this is an internal reward, it does not rely on external signs, such as degrees or belts.

(2) there is perhaps also pragmatic perspectives such as education is only to get a more well paid job, or MA training is to learn self defence etc. This also does not necessarily require external confirmations.

(3) In MA clubs, just as at the university, people are different and are in it for different reasons, I suppose any reason is our own free choices, none are wrong. Do you want to get a PhD to get status and respect, or to deep dive in a subject?

im a mainly type(1), in MA but also in other fields of life. Interaction and comparing yourself with others is stimulating and helpful, but not the main drive for me.
 
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PhotonGuy

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I would add a caveat that it shouldn't be the end. Unfortunately for many it is.
I would say for most people who take up the martial arts, the end for them is at white belt. They try it out for awhile and decide it's not for them, before making it past white belt. The martial arts has such a high turnover rate.
 

geezer

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The reason I keep flogging a dead horse is because some people just keep missing my points because some of the people on this forum are just so downright absolutely stubborn, those people know who they are.
I thought you did it to make the meat tender.

Seriously, though. Repetition is a good way to ingrain a physical skill. On the other hand, repeating an opinion over and over is not an effective way to persuade those who disagree. Just the opposite. It gets old and annoying.

Sometimes you just have to accept that other folks will see things differently. Um, if you are married you probably already know that. ;)
 

HighKick

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I thought you did it to make the meat tender.

Seriously, though. Repetition is a good way to ingrain a physical skill. On the other hand, repeating an opinion over and over is not an effective way to persuade those who disagree. Just the opposite. It gets old and annoying.

Sometimes you just have to accept that other folks will see things differently. Um, if you are married you probably already know that. ;)
Just because you are the loudest guy in the room does Not make you right.
 
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PhotonGuy

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I thought you did it to make the meat tender.

Seriously, though. Repetition is a good way to ingrain a physical skill. On the other hand, repeating an opinion over and over is not an effective way to persuade those who disagree. Just the opposite. It gets old and annoying.

Sometimes you just have to accept that other folks will see things differently. Um, if you are married you probably already know that. ;)
There's a difference between people disagreeing with my opinions and people missing the point about what my opinions are in the first place. It's with the latter that I run into problems on this forum.
 

Monkey Turned Wolf

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There's a difference between people disagreeing with my opinions and people missing the point about what my opinions are in the first place. It's with the latter that I run into problems on this forum.
No, people tend to understand what your points are. You pretty much beat everyone over the head with them. When people disagree with you, you assume they don't understand them for some reason.
 

bluepanther

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I think the allure for most teenagers is they want to learn to fight to protect themselves. So the end goal is to be able to defend yourself. Now after 4 years and getting a blackbelt, if you are just a seruious beginner, what is the point? Say your 15 when you take up Karate. At 19 after 4 years of getting your a$$ kicked in high school you are now only a serious beginner? By the time you truly get good, you will be raising a family and the bullies will be long gone. Now I get it if you have no religion or philosophy you live your life by, martial arts can be a lifelong philosophical journey and keep you moderately physically fit, maybe. Little kids are forced into martial arts by parents, and adults take them up to stay in shape and as a hobby.
 
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PhotonGuy

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No, people tend to understand what your points are. You pretty much beat everyone over the head with them. When people disagree with you, you assume they don't understand them for some reason.
Nope, people keep changing my analogies and pretend like they don't hear me, or in this case since we are writing on an Internet forum and not talking out loud, read me.

For instance, one of the points I've tried to make on this forum is if you could get something done and there was a way to do it where you would get it done in less time and get the same results, key words "SAME RESULTS" would you do it that way? As for me, I would choose to do something quicker and save time if there was a way to do it quicker if it would give me the same end result. If you ask me it makes sense to do stuff quicker and save time as long as it doesn't affect the final outcome.

Now, some people might disagree with me and might choose to take more time to get something done even if they're not getting anything extra for taking more time. That's fine, I'm not going to hold anything against them for choosing to do that. The problem is when people keep ignoring the part about the end results being the same which is why I've kept trying to explain it multiple times with various analogies. But when people change my analogies they keep missing the point, and so I keep having to try to explain it.
 
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PhotonGuy

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I think the allure for most teenagers is they want to learn to fight to protect themselves. So the end goal is to be able to defend yourself. Now after 4 years and getting a blackbelt, if you are just a seruious beginner, what is the point?
Exactly how good you are as a blackbelt would depend, it would depend on how you got the black belt, what you did to get it, what your skills had to be at the dojo where you got it.
Say your 15 when you take up Karate. At 19 after 4 years of getting your a$$ kicked in high school you are now only a serious beginner? By the time you truly get good, you will be raising a family and the bullies will be long gone.
There's always bullies. Bullying doesn't stop after high school, college, ect.

But hey, by the time Daniel Larusso was raising a family his high school bullies were still around, even if they had been reformed and they more or less had made up for the stuff in the past.
Now I get it if you have no religion or philosophy you live your life by, martial arts can be a lifelong philosophical journey and keep you moderately physically fit, maybe.
Exactly what I said.
Little kids are forced into martial arts by parents, and adults take them up to stay in shape and as a hobby.
On the contrary many parents might be reluctant to sign their kids up for martial arts, although you're right that some adults take it up to stay in shape and as a hobby although for me I find it way too demanding to be a mere hobby.
 

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