Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Indoctrination.......Practice makes perfect, no perfect practice makes perfect.

Years ago while watching a martial artist perform I remarked to my sensei how good he was at his kicks. Sensei then states, " No he's not, just watch him carefully". "Ah you are right, he telegraphs his kicks". Sensei then says, "Yes and he's perfect at it". The point he was trying to make is that we can even practice mistakes and get very good at them.
As human beings we all seem to have our own views or perceptions about the world and how it functions. Most of us developed these while we were younger and very impressionable. They typically were given to us by the people closest to us, and unfortunately many of these views have had negative outcomes in our lives. Body image, self esteem, spiritual beliefs, trust, the list goes on. In a sense we were indoctrinated into someone else's perception of the world. I know for myself I learned very early that the world was combative. You had to be tough, fight for yourself, and make sure no one saw your weakness. Unfortunately for years I practiced that belief system and became good at it. It has been a long process of re-training myself but I have slowly become better at another view of the world. One that is more loving, more supportive and friendly. I still hope to one day perfect that belief.

Im curious fellow bloggers, what are you good at?

7 comments:

Luke said...

excellent parable! a 4th grade understanding of the world is great, if you're in the 4th grade. many of us don't update past that..or at best, past high school.

i think that's what i'm good at. dialogue and learning new POV's. i still ultimately have the bias of my family history that i'm working in or against, but all is to be more loving and compassionate of others.

great stuff man! hope you're having a great summer!

Anonymous said...

"Im curious fellow bloggers, what are you good at?" (John)

If u asked Jim I'd bet he'd say 'worthless sinner' (lol) - Im kidding.

What am I good at...I am a problem solver and a peacemaker. I love to debate and stir up the pot - but for me that's a learning process I see that works and allows me to learn a lot about myself and others viewpoints.

I am also very good at relating to people and stating a point in very simple form for the people around me that may not quite get what something means.

I don't want to be perfect - it's not what we were created for. I wanna be useful!

Kingfisher Leaf Culture said...

very cool, bro.

For a long time, I was really good at being perceived as "in control". I smiled almost all of the time.

Now, I have learned to unlearn this, adopting a new worldview of vulnerability, confession, accountability, and authentic community.

Now, I am really good at the latter. However, I think that everyone now assumes that I have always been good at it. On our site, we have coined this worldview "living naked". Still, folks seem to always come along and assume that it is easier for us. One guy explained it away as a "generational gap". Although he was fun to refute, it's still sort of annoying that people assume that just because we wear our struggles on our sleeves, that it is "easy".

Tit for Tat said...

Thanks for the comments guys. I will be out of town for the next few days, hope to discuss a little more when I get back.

Anonymous said...

I am a decent listener. I try to give others a chance to voice their concerns and opinions before commenting . . .

Not so good at blogging lately . . .

mac said...

My TaeKwanDo instructer used to say the same thing about practice :-)

What do I do well?
I think I am pretty good at noticing detail when I put my mind to it. I'm not a detail freak, or OCD or anything. Sometimes(most) I let everything slide. But, when I need it, I'm pretty good at it :-)

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed this one, too. My fixation is how skateboarding can be a form of Budo (not just physically, but mentally and spiritually, too). The part you wrote about "practicing mistakes" was spot-on. Really knowing what causes a mistake is one of the best ways to perfect technique. There's science at work: repetition, correction, refinement, observation, etc.

Just this morning I was pushing full speed to the coffee shop left-foot forward, which is not my usual stance, but I often push left-foot forward to encourage muscular symmetry. Skateboarding in particular encourages body imbalances, as the rider often practices from the same one-sided stance. Anyways, point is, I caught the edge of a sewer grate at full speed and got pitched. The importance of ukemi is an obvious analog, but I became aware of why I fell, and for the rest of the session was more aware of my bodyweight in relation to tan tien, and actually noticed feeling considerably more rooted and that I was improving the technique.

Thanks, I'm glad I came over here today.