The farther I have traveled on the Way, the more I have realized that I am in charge of my own future. I mean to say that, once upon a time, I couldn’t dream of doing a dive roll over five people, or flipping over and landing on my side (without breaking something!), or earning a black belt in a martial art. Over the past three years, though, I have learned that I can make life happen, or I can let it happen to me. Simply put, I create my own destiny.
It is more than coming to class each week clocking time on the mat. When I hit green belt, I came to every class just as I did in my beginner belts. However, I lost focus. Everything, including a spinning heel hook, was just too hard. I built obstacles where there none. After three months, I began to shift with impatience. Why was I not learning? Why was I not improving? Why was I not advancing? The hard truth was that I was letting other things dictate my training. I was in class, but thinking about the rough day I’d had at work, or the disagreement I’d had with someone, or the frustration I felt about my slowed progress. All of these cluttered my mind. I allowed them to crowd out my focus.
Instead of creating my destiny, I was succumbing to my life. When I finally got frustrated, though, that began to change. I began coming to class with a purpose – “I will improve on my heel hook todayâ€; or, “I will effectively apply my Ho Shin Sulâ€. With each class, then, I had an attainable goal to mark whether I was training well. The results were almost instant. I tipped in my fourth month, and tested for purple belt in my fifth. The lesson I learned on the mats also carried over into my life.
Unhappy with my job, I focused on actively improving or changing my situation. At work, I aggressively pursued attainable goals to create and foster a more collegial atmosphere in my department and on campus. At the same time, I also pursued interviews with other schools. Rather than allowing the negative aspects of my workplace to determine my outlook, I determined my outlook and worked to create a new reality in my workplace. The dividends were amazing. At work, the situation improved nominally. The interviews at other places, however, proved to be life-changing. I scheduled an interview with a school that I had only peripheral knowledge of. However, their pursuit of me was aggressive, and they created an opportunity for me to come to campus to visit before I had heard back from some others.
Reynaldo MacÃas