Opportunities, Potential and Mistakes
Let’s be clear- opportunities are not given, they are taken. Someone can create an opportunity for you, but if you do not help yourself and DO something with it, then it’s just a missed opportunity. No matter how badly I may want it for you, I cannot make you take it.
When it comes to teaching, as an instructor on deck I have a world of opportunity, but that does not mean that I will necessarily take advantage of it. If I decide not to engage with a student on a personal level, then I have lost the opportunity to get to know that individual, to gain their trust and therefore have the ability to influence, and the opportunity to grow in my own skills as an instructor. This is just one example.
Some of you are okay with that. I’m okay with that if that is what you want, but know that you are throwing away opportunity and your own potential. In other words, you will not advance to the master level.
If you want more from the classes you attend, then you have to do more with them. Engage on a deeper level. Let me be clear; this has nothing to do with whoever is in charge, this has to do with how attentive you are as both student and teacher, often at the same time. I can be in charge of the black belt class, the “top dog” so to speak, but if I cannot keep my ego in check, if I am more concerned with how others perceive me, then I will miss the chance to learn something when Sihing Csillag asks a question on zoom, or Sihing Burke asks about what something feels like. These are MY opportunities, as much as theirs. They seek my knowledge, I gain wisdom in exploring the answer with them. And don’t get me wrong, I am exploring the answer at the same time as you are hearing it.
And I grow, because I am okay knowing I don’t know it all, that I make mistakes. Mistakes are opportunities too, if you choose to let them be.
The opportunities are endless, the potential is beyond what you can perceive. IF your approach is open, if you are honest in your ability, strengths, weaknesses. If you are able to acknowledge what is the truth about you. If you are able to let go of your ego, your need to be seen in a certain light.
Don’t ask for opportunities. Create them. Take them.
Make mistakes. Make lots of mistakes. Learn from them. If you’re afraid of making a mistake then, ironically enough, that in itself is a mistake.
The only wrong mistake is the one you refuse to learn from.