2012-366 Day 33 – Big Boy Pants

Here’s the point where I get to man up and say I was wrong. I sat here a few weeks ago and discussed that with hard work and dedication, I could be awesome and skip a belt in Karate. The part about me being awesome hasn’t changed, but the intervening three weeks have demonstrated that I had misplaced priorities and a strong desire for position based respect, problems which extend outside of just Karate for me.

It is an obvious fact that if something is wrong with the foundation of a building, the entire building is in danger. Likewise in any endeavor that requires building from a series of basic steps to mastery, if you do not spend time on the basics, mastery will be more difficult. My initial desire to skip a belt stemmed entirely from the goal of achieving Black Belt as quickly as possible, but quickly obviously does not always mean best. At class last night I realized that I could continue on my current track to skip and turn in a relatively sloppy performance (but likely still pass), or I could slow myself down, focus on only the Orange Belt material, have a much stronger performance, and give myself the extra time to truly refine my fundamentals.

Perhaps it would not be such a problem if my goal was merely to reach Black Belt, with no regard as to the method or what to do next. Earlier in my life (like I’m that old) that may have even been the case, but at this point I want to do it correctly. The problem was in evidence when I tested for my red stripe (demonstrated the form required) for Orange Belt and I messed up one of the moves in the sequence. I had been spending so much time on the tournament form (one level higher) that I had only done the Orange Belt form four or five times, not nearly enough for ironing out the problems. It was still acceptable, but it wasn’t good. I could rush past it, or I could take the time to do it right.

In all, it really came down to pride. I hate the fact that I’m at a low rank. The month and a half at white belt was torturous for me. I want to be looked upon and respected, and this was an area where that wasn’t possible due to my belt color. My realization last night? Respect isn’t tied to my belt color (I know, a little slow on my part, at least it only took two and a half months), and in reality someone should have less respect for me if I sloppily advanced two belts over properly advancing one. That Black Belt isn’t going anywhere, and adding two months to the journey is only going to make me better in the long run.

Weight: 236.4 Max: 240 Min: 234.4 Body Fat %: 24.9
Yearly Mileage: 10.5 miles (+2 miles)
Current Belt: Purple – Next Belt: Orange – Next Test Date: 3/3/12
Fitocracy Level: 11 (12977 points, 1627/2500 to next level) – ID: disciplev1