BE UNIQUE
7 Life Lessons I Learned Training Martial Arts
For those who never stepped into a martial arts gym, fighting might look violent, exhaustive, and even non-sense: a lot of guys and girls rolling on the mat, performing too many sit-ups, push-ups, and kicking punch bags. It may look like it hurts — and it does, trust me. So many will think: why the heck would anyone put yourself to this much effort?
But truth is, for most of those who train any martial art, this is a lifestyle that can help achieve better things in life. From body health to mental strength, these sports have the power to change one’s life — for the good.
Although I’m not an athlete, I’ve been practicing martial arts for several years of my life. I started with judo as a kid and trained until I was a teenager. Then changed to Muay Thai already in my 20’s — when I also took some boxing lessons — and I can guarantee my life wouldn’t be the same without all those countless hours in the gym, punching and getting punched, because I managed to take several life lessons from those classes.
The most important lessons, though, are the ones that we can apply not only for sports but for growing as a person outside of the gym.
Here are these lessons:
It will hurt, but the pain will go away
When you start training for the first time, it is inevitable to feel like your full body is screaming in pain. Your muscles will want to quit, it will be hard to even take one step to get out of your bed in the morning. The same goes for when you cannot predict your opponent’s blow and take the hit: it will hurt.
The good news is that it doesn’t matter how much it hurts, the pain will go away. As your body gets used to the new exercise, the pain will be decreased little by little and instead of pain you will feel excited and relaxed at the same time, and your body will want more work out. That’s the adrenaline and cortisol kicking in — and you will get addicted to it.
The same thing goes for your life. Some situations might make you hurt, but you need to fight them until you make things better. Don’t stop until you are happy.
You never stop learning
The beauty in martial arts is that, even when you are a black belt, you must keep training, learning, and improving. Sometimes it might be not learning any new technical strike but learning with other people that are in the gym with you. You can even learn how to help, how to interact with others, how to make friends, or how to overcome the pain.
In many different ways, you never stop learning.
Discipline is one of the most important things in life
If you want to evolve and get better on any martial art, you will need discipline. It is not possible to skip the cardio, strength, and technical training, then just jump into the ring and be the best fighter ever. Focus is crucial if you want to master any skill — in your life, in your career, and, of course, in martial arts.
Focus on positive things
Just like in life, if you focus only on negative things, your brain might stop trying to reach better results. Instead of focusing on how difficult something can be, how something might hurt, the best thing we can do is to embrace the positive side of everything and use it as fuel to grow.
You must say goodbye to your fears
Everybody has fears. People aren’t born brave and capable of everything. Courage is the ability to overcome your fears and do what is needed to be done anyway. For martial arts, it might mean that you need to step up and embrace new challenges as taking your first fight in a ring, learning a new, highly-technical strike, or even move on from the beginners’ class to the advanced one.
In life, overcoming your fears can make all the difference — this is how you might conquer a new job, a new career, a great relationship, the chance of an awesome life with the best family. Sometimes you just need the courage to apply for a hard professional position or even have the guts to say ‘hi’ to that interesting person in the bar.
Mental strength is essential
It might look like martial arts are totally about your body: strength, cardio, fitness, weight loss… but truly, it is not. Martial arts show you that you also need to be strong mentally to overcome your fears, deal with difficult situations, and have the motivation to keep trying and evolving. This new, recent developed mental strength developed by your favorite martial art will not go away — it is yours for life, and you will benefit from it.
Be open to other people
You might think you don’t need new friends, and that’s ok. But it is healthy to socialize — and practicing martial arts is a great way to do that. Although your training partners do not necessarily need to become your best friends in life, knowing different people is interesting for learning how to deal with diverse types of personalities — and even learn and teach new skills. Be open to talking, to learn, to interact: you might be surprised at how much you can learn from people that take your punches.
Final thought
Although these lessons came from my experiences with martial arts, they are not only restricted to the gym hours; as a passionate lifelong learner and sports lover, I truly believe that anything that you dedicate yourself in life can teach you countless, invaluable life lessons — if practiced with passion and effort.
