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Don't look down

I heard a story once of a martial art teacher who was very accomplished. Every year, he would go somewhere he wouldn't be known, put on a white belt and join some dojos, just to learn something new, pick up a new skill, without prejudice or preconceptions.

It's a funny business having belts. I'm two lessons into BJJ. I joined to learn something new, gain some skill in something I'm not at all good at. It's easy to say I don't care about belt colour because I know I'm at the bottom. I wonder if I'll loose sight of that as I train and start chasing belts? I hope not. I hope I'm old enough to train for myself and not care about chasing external signs of validation. That's not to say that skill should be untested, just that owning a skill is not something someone else gives you. I liked what my teacher (can you call them that after only two lessons? I don't know) said at the last class when talking about an upcoming grading :

If you don't like what colour your belt is, don't look down.


Here's to training for the sake of the training.
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