There’s only so many WOWs! Yes, There’s only so many WOWs in life!
People avoid doing what’s chancy or difficult. Someone once asked me if I thought they should make a major life move. I asked them if this was something that they wanted to do. They said yes, but I don’t know if I’m ready. I replied, you may never think you’re ready, If this is something that you want to do then the time and opportunity is here, so do it. Sometimes when opportunity presents itself we must be able to recognize it as that. If we pass up golden opportunities because it is difficult or inconvenient, then we will always say what if?
As I’ve come into my 50′s I now see that many of my childhood friends have health issues. I’m sure many have unfulfilled dreams, as do I! We all have missed many WOWS. I’ve been to many competitions and many times I could’ve done better. I’ve missed many WOWS just because I didn’t prepare enough. I know many people that have one excuse after another of why they don’t pursue their WOWS.
I got my shodan at age 30. By that age, most of the people I know consider themselves retired from competition and future WOWS. My sons must’ve got something from my gene pool. My 2 eldest sons are still playing hockey with kids half there age. My youngest son is closer to 30 than he is 20 and he’s still a college student even though he’s a graduate teaching assistant, working on his doctorate. My point here is that many people retire before they do anything at all.
I often talk about training for competition. When I trained for Kata I would set out with a number of times in mind that I would want to practice my kata (form). When I achieved a certain percentage I would allow myself to stop early if I wowed myself. If I wanted to practice 10 times and number 7 was the best I’ve ever done I’d consider stopping at that point. I’ve always felt that stopping on a positive note was much better than finishing on an artificial number with a negative feeling. In other words when you reached wow, that’s the best time to stop. Nothing like a good wow to make us feel ready!
I was at a karate tournament and getting ready to fight. My opponent was built like a professional wrestler. He outweighed me by 100 pounds and could move like a little guy. He was doing splits and spin kicks while he was warming up! My wife and one of my students were there to watch and both were showing concern. My wife was saying are you sure you want to fight. I smile and said sure, no problem. I lined up weighing in at 185 and he weighed 290 and claimed to be a former power lifter. He looked at me like he thought I should be intimidated. I’ll have to admit that it was hard not to be intimidated when your wife is looking at you like you’re going to get killed. I said to myself that this guy didn’t know what he was in for. I attacked first, (figuring that he would never expect that) and fought without fear. As the fight progressed we were tied at 2 and we went into sudden death (great expression, huh?). We moved around and he threw a ridge hand which I blocked with both arms and the impact lifted me in the air and I landed several feet from where I was hit. I guess the impact and delivery was impressive enough that the judges all scored it, even though it was definitely blocked. He won! Yep, I survived. Not only that, he walked straight over and asked if he could come and train with me. I was totally confused! I said, but you beat me. He said, yes I know, but no one ever gives me a good fight. You gave me the best fight I ever had. WOW! I’ve had good days and bad days in the ring but that was a definite WOW! I was in good shape at the time. I had been training hard and sparring a lot at that time. However the main reason that I did as well as I did was because I decided that I would. I decided that I wouldn’t be afraid and would not be intimidated. In losing I still had one of the biggest WOWs I ever had.
In life we all have certain capabilities and opportunities available to us. We have only so many chances to WOW ourselves. When our time has past it’s too late for a lot of WOWs. Missed opportunities are just that. I’ve missed many and messed up many more. We all have. When the opportunity comes that we’ve been looking for don’t look at say, I don’t think I can do it. If the time is now, then it is now!
What’s the best time to change? Right now! Can’t get those WOWs sitting at home or retired from life!
Look for those wows and grab them!!
Written by:
Shihan Perry Culver 7th degree Black Belt
