Keeping Budo with you daily

We often times think only of budo, our budo, when we are engaged in training our chosen art. For that 60-90 minutes a few times a week, that is all we dedicate to the Budoka lifestyle. If we are lucky our instructors remind us of the link we share with previous Budoka who came before and brought about the arts and skills we now endeavor to accumulate and master.

Bushido is often overlooked in some arts, and entirely missing in others. People are not taught that the warrior ethos and that of the budoka go one to one. The noble virtues and the honorable path are not things that should just be thought of when doing kata and throwing around your training partner. Instead the lifestyle of martial artist should have Budo in everything they do.

You should have budo in raising your family, in your work and in your lifestyle. We all know that the lessons we learned through lecture, and more importantly, through training and action can be applied to most every aspect of your life. When you are young (age or training time) you do not know of these things, nor of how to leverage the inputs and experiences coming your way. But, as you delve deeper into the credo and teachings of any martial art, you learn there is always something deeper. Even in modern arts, such as MMA, Krav Maga etc. there are lessons to be learned and applied to life.

Persistence is the obvious trait, but so is dedication, commitment, honor (one hoops) and fortitude. Those are all great and grand, but we also learn physics and anatomy and physiology. You learn psychology and verbal judo, as much as, actual JUDO! All of these acquired skills and attributes, if applied outside of the dojo and into other aspects of your everyday life, will help you be a better Budoka, and a better citizen/brother/father/mother/child in this world and society.

Take the time to be cognizant of your daily life and see where what you learned on the mats and tatami, can be leveraged into your business, relationships and own self growth.

Domo Arigato