Hey, Superstar. Ando here from Happy Life Martial Arts. I recorded a podcast a while
ago titled, “7 Lessons I Learned From Bruce Lee.” To listen to that show or read the
article, I’ll put the link below. But today, I thought I'd take just one of those pieces
of advice that I found in the Tao of Jeet Kune Do and share the two big lessons that
I learned from it. These lessons meant a lot to me when I was young and they still mean
a lot to me now that I’m older. Here comes the advice.
OK. Here is what Bruce Lee wrote—
“Too much time is given to the development of skill and too little to the development
of the individual for participation.” The first lesson I take from those words is to
get in shape and stay in shape. Why? Because physical fitness is its own self-defense technique.
No matter what you know, you won’t be able to do it if you’re not in shape. Even if
that just means running away from danger.
In the martial arts, you can spend a lifetime learning and experimenting with new ideas.
You can read books and watch videos all day long. You can fool yourself into believing
that knowing 1,000 tricks and techniques will somehow make you invincible. I call that the
“mystique of technique”. But the fact is knowledge on its own is worthless. That’s
why Bruce also said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I
fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”
So, get out of your head and practice. While you’re at it, breathe, sleep, stretch, and
eat clean. A fit body is your first line of self-defense against bugs and bad guys. I
mean, it’s cool if you know 101 defenses from a knife attack, but kind of embarrassing
if you die of a heart attack because you eat garbage and never get off the couch.
The second lesson goes a little deeper. Right after Bruce tells us to practice more than
just skills, he says, “Training deals not with an object, but with the human spirit
and human emotions.”
That gave me a heads up early on that it’s never a technique that saves you, it’s YOU
that saves you. A technique is just a tool. The big question is who is using that tool?
If you’re a quitter or a whiner, it doesn’t matter what style you study or what technique
you think you know, when the pressure is on, when trouble finds you, you’re going to
quit. You’re going to make excuses. You’re going to lose.
Think about it this way. You are a person first. Second, you’re either a fighter or
you’re not. Third, you’re a student of the martial arts. If you break it down like
that, you can see that the type of person you are is far more important than what style
you study or how long you practice your techniques. Just because you can throw a powerful punch
doesn’t make you a powerful person. So, remember--you’re a person first, a fighter
second, and a martial artist third.
So, my advice—if you want to defeat the “mystique of technique,” then don’t
just focus on the physical part of your training, focus on the psychological and emotional parts
as well. Ask yourself the difficult questions. Do you feel like a loser? Do you think you
know it all? How do you handle criticism and corrections? Do you have anger issues? Is
your temper out of control? Or are you too quiet? Do you have a hard time speaking up
for yourself? Do you feel uncomfortable with confrontation?
Wait! Don’t stop there. Go deeper. Are you a quitter? Do you hate making mistakes? Are
you afraid of asking questions? Are you a good listener? Are you ashamed of your past?
Are you comfortable in your own body? Are you clear about what you would fight for?
Are you capable of causing someone pain or even taking a life if you had to? Serious
questions. But exactly what I think Bruce Lee was talking about when he said we should
be training “spirit and emotions.”
Yes, martial arts is an effective methodology for training yourself to be a stronger, tougher,
better person. But it’s also true that training yourself to be a stronger, tougher, better
person will make you a better martial artist. If you treat the whole world as your school
and treat every person you meet as a teacher, then you, my friend, will not just be preparing
yourself to participate in the martial arts, you will be preparing yourself to participate
in life. If you enjoyed these thoughts about Bruce Lee’s advice, thanks for giving this
video a thumbs up. And hey--if you have a favorite Bruce Lee quote you’d like to share,
please leave it in the comments below. Until next time, go deep and keep fighting for a
happy life.