Failure will happen

 Failure will happen 

This is the blog for December of 2024 for the Total 360 karate studio. This blog will discuss what happens and what we should do when we fail.  

It doesn’t matter if you are 55 or 8 years it is inevitable that you will fail at something.  Everyone can learn how to forget and move forward.  

The first part of failing is learning to accept that it did happen and that you did not get what you wanted.  From here, you have choices: you can be upset that it didn’t happen, but at some point, you decide if you will try harder or give up. 

Allow yourself the pain of failing at something. We learn more from our mistakes or not getting something than from achieving something on the first try.  In karate, this comes in the form of not passing a belt test, getting beat in a sparring match, or not passing a written test.  

Once you decide the anger has passed, what do you want to do?  Accepting that it happened is the first step.  Next is building on the mistakes and not letting them happen again. Did you not study enough at home for the test, get sick before the test, think you had, and stop reviewing?

Sensei has experienced rejection.  The only belt tests, I passed on the first try were white and yellow. The rest, I learned to wait for my Sensei to say I was ready. Patience helped me understand that my Sensei was watching and would tell me when I was ready.  

What do you do when we show you did not meet the standard?  There’s no blaming someone else when you have the evidence.  Even if you don’t, moving forward is the key.  Take a serious look at the mistakes, evaluate each, find a way to fix them, and learn from them. In our studio, we have a blue belt pre-test, allowing students to be in the class with brown and black belt applicants as they take their tests.  This means they can see what is expected, learn from watching, and be a part of gauging where they are. 

Michael Jordan missed more shots than he took.  Mohammed Ali was knocked down over a dozen times.  The Golden State Warriors were bottom team in the league before 2012.  Each of them had to fail to get where they wanted to be.  This is the same in karate.  Rise to the challenge and show you have the grit, and determination to be successful.  

Sensei Rodgers