We're up and running!

Great Wall of China 2011

The blog is finally up!
I've been playing around with an idea in my head for the last few months or so about starting up a blog. Though the question was, what should it be about?

I decided with a lot of thought, that I should try and document my journey as a martial arts student. It forms an integral part of my life and isn't just exercise, but a mindset and philosophy on how to approach and handle life.

I aim to use this blog to keep track of the important things that I've learnt and constantly seek to improve myself (both mentally and physically). By documenting the things I learn, I feel that I will force myself to think alot more about mechanics, the spirit and the foundations of martial arts and not just go to my classes and bludgeon my way through (which I am often tempted to do). I will aim to analyse the teachings each day and put it down for future reference, cementing the concepts and lessons in my brain.

Now, to the picture. This picture was taken when my wife and I were at the Great Wall of China in 2011. When looking for photos to put in this blog, I realised that nearly 90% of them are of our cat (I'll upload some of those later). However, my wife suggested I post a photo of when we were in China. I found this picture which I think is a very appropriate visualisation of a martial arts student's journey. Every student starts somewhere and the journey is never a straight smooth linear curve, but rather full of ups and downs. We never truly know where our journey will take us and the goal isn't really that important. What's important is the journey itself, the constant striving to keep moving, improving and getting back up again when we are down.

I may not get any readers, but at the very least, I hope I get something out of it.