Basically....

 We here it so often in the martial arts world, "The basics are the most important for your development." Even as patiently as we may endure the basics we are very eager to move into the more interesting and complex motions of our art. Through time we grow in ways we never imagined and feel new potential power growing from within. Our research, training and trials opens a new world into infinite possibilities.

Soon we find movements we like and movements we love. The continual practice is a mathematical equation for your progress and success. We know that we have come to learn so much and have much more to learn. Soon we contemplate why some movements have developed well while others haven't really developed into what we want yet. How is it possible that I have trained so long and this move lacks so much of what it should be. We develop and design countless ways to make the move progress but it is obviously at a plateau. Every new concept and idea bears fruit but the move still doesn't have the magic it should have. Finally we find the magic in a place that we have long forgotten....in the basics.

It's funny how what we are looking for is always right in front of us. We just don't know what we are looking for yet. In practice when we are doing a deep and uncomfortable step it is easy to really think about what we are going to do after this move ends. When the discomfort sets in we naturally stand taller and taller until the discomfort becomes some what tolerable. In fact you can find plenty of motions that we choose to skim through instead of really feel the pain. Until one day you finally realize: the only thing that matters is the pain.

The pain is your body's way of trying to communicate to you. It doesn't have a mouth to speak so it uses nerves to say, "That's uncomfortable." Yet the nerves only hurt because that very basic and simple stance is changing you from the inside out. In another dialect your body is saying, "I'm getting stronger!" To try to make it more comfortable would be the same as trying to drink soda without the carbonation.

In life we often want to choose the road that is the most comfortable, but in comfort we hardly can grow. It is through long suffering that we actually find what we are looking for. What we seek is not in comfort but in purpose. Purpose and comfort rarely go hand in hand. The only true comfort rests at the end of your purpose. Once you have become the person you wish to be, you spend the rest of your days enjoying being who you are. Not contradicting yourself with negative thoughts and doubts of your own character. Look deep into your life at the many basics that you may continue to skip pass because those problems will always return to your path in a new form. Conquer your lack of patience, your temper, bad attitude, or apathy and enjoy who you are meant to be. Your pain is the pathway to your dream.