Featured Essays: How to Conquer Yourself
Updated on December 22nd, 2021 at 02:34 pm
Our students, both children and adults, know how to express themselves on important topics that promote successful martial arts practice. Here are a few excerpts from our recent series of student essays. Let’s be Inspired!
1. “To conquer yourself means to dominate and take control of the difficulties you face. This is something that we as martial artists can adopt as an ambition: the higher in rank, the more challenging the next level becomes. We hopefully advance learning how to control ourselves and the situation…..not merely overcoming a dilemma, but completely crushing all challenges put before us.
Overcoming adversity gives the impression that you struggled through the process and although you may have reached your goal, it was unpleasant and you’re just happy for it to be over! Conquering a challenge means you’re working so hard and with passion that you almost enjoy the struggles that inevitably come when facing obstacles.
Learning how to conquer yourself will allow you to enjoy the process to triumph over challenges and lead you on the road to being ‘The Best of the Best’.”
by: BuSabomNim Stefan Segreti, 1 level below 4th Dan, age 25, Adult Program and Children’s Program Instructor.
2. “If something is hard, you’ll have to work twice as hard. You must be persistent.” – Kiran, 2nd Dan, age 11, Children’s Program.
3. “Conquering yourself means to overcome any challenge that you face, which requires a lot of ambition, self-determination and courage. Courage is probably one of the main components in conquering yourself. I think this is a life-skill that everyone should learn and have.” – Santiago, 2nd Dan, age 11, Children’s Program.
4. “To conquer myself means that I must first surrender. Surrendering to those things that I cannot control creates capacity in my mind. It creates space and energy that I can direct to things I CAN control. Conquering myself means eliminating the voices (mine or others’) that say, ‘you can’t’, or ‘you’re not good enough’. I laugh at them. Laughing gives me energy and confidence. To surrender and to conquer, again and again.” – Joel, ColorBelt, age 44, Adult Program.
5. “For me, conquering yourself means freeing yourself from doubt or fear. In order to truly conquer yourself, you have to defeat the part of you that tells you that you aren’t good enough. The best way to obtain this goal, as far as I know, is to gain confidence in yourself. I find my strength and confidence in martial arts because it makes me feel like I am someone worth defending. The most important thing that you cannot give up on is yourself.” – Olivia, ColorBelt, age 17, Teen Program.
6. “As we get older, there is a lot about life that continues to change, and very little of it do we actually have control over. The only real thing we can control is how we react to situations as they happen, and to me, this is a big part of conquering yourself. Being a martial artist is more than coming to class and doing your forms: it’s learning to embrace all your ‘rough drafts’ and be proud of your accomplishments, no matter how small. To conquer yourself means being disciplined to push hard through bad habits in order to structure better ones. No one ever regrets becoming a better person!”-Samantha, ColorBelt, age 26.
7. “To conquer yourself means to turn your fears into strengths. It means to do things that you could never do before.” – Lorenzo, ColorBelt, age 9, Children’s Program.
