Recovering from Imperfections

September 27, 2008

in Martial Arts

If imperfection is not welcome then you will not be stable when perfection fails.

When I read the post about perfectionism from Shihan Doug Wilson, I thought about all the times I’d messed up a technique in the dojo. And then I realized, I’d done more messed up techniques in my 10 years learning Bujinkan Taijutsu than perfect ones.

But Doug made me think that the golden moments weren’t those shining rarities where I pulled off perfect techniques. They were probably those moments when I didn’t do a technique properly, but still recovered from it and kept myself safe.

Since real life is messy, maybe learning how to do a perfect technique isn’t as important as learning how to recover from an imperfect one.

Or, to extrapolate into a Zen moment: seek not perfection, but the ability to bounce from your imperfections and do it anyway.

Related Posts

  1. Perfection in Motion
  2. A Question about Psychological Self-Defense
  3. Lessons Learned at 30
  4. Martial Arts is Dealing with Self-Defense Failure

Leave a Comment

Previous post:

Next post: