All our reactions in life are based on impulse - natural, repeated reactions that over time eventually turn into habits.
We all have habits - bad, good, dangerous, and life-saving habits - and all of these habits are driven by our subconscious mind.
Your subconscious mind never question what you tell it to do; it will always act on your beliefs, commands, or persistent reactions.
It will not question whether that belief, command, or reaction is right or wrong, and that belief could be that the Earth is flat, as many people believed for hundreds of years, or a comic book defence action against an attack that could leave you, in adulthood, very badly injured.
WE ARE what we REPEATEDLY do.
EXCELLENCE, then, is not an act, BUT A HABIT.
- Aristole Neither Bruce Lee nor our aikido masters were born with these skills.
They began with a belief they could achieve these skills, and over a period of years, they successfully perfected them, but before you begin to make the changes to your habits, there are certain rules that you must follow, and these rules for changing your habits do not only apply to your self-defense.
They can also be very effective for changes you may wish to make in your life, such as regaining yourself confidence, overcoming your fear of public speaking, etc.
- they can all be overcome if you follow these rules.
But first there are certain principles that you must also follow - your success in any changes you wish to make is dependent on your ability to follow a set routine until you have reached your objective.
As an example, if you planned to achieve a physical target of 100 press-ups, you may find that, on your first attempt, you are only able to achieve 10 press-ups; and as you progress through the next two weeks, you may start to achieve, 25 to 30 press-ups.
BUT if you now stopped for the next few days, you would find that the number of press-ups you would now achieve would have decreased to possibly only 14.
There has to be therefore a certain unbroken continuation of your daily press-ups routine until you attain your target of 100 press-ups and where you can then maintain that level.
It takes at least 21 days to break A HABIT - Ervin Handoko Similarly, the same principle applies when you change a bad habit into a good habit: it takes a minimum of 21 days of verbal repetition, visualisation, and belief to create a habit or reverse a negative habit.
In Judo, one of the early masters, Sensei Kyuso Mifuni 10th Dan, taught his students that they would have to practise a technique or movement 10,000 times before it became instinctive.
It is therefore imperative that you maintain an unbroken cycle of repetitions of your technique and mental belief in that technique for a minimum unbroken period of 21 days.
In your daily repetitive actions, you will slowly feel a confidence begin to arise within you, and as you continue with this cycle of repetition, it becomes easier until it becomes a habit, a natural instinct.
Your preparation - Firstly, ask yourself what it is you want to achieve, and then write it down.
Follow it up with a weekly written program, and make your visualisation of your actions and thoughts in the 'now', in the 'I am' and not in the 'I will' or 'I shall'.
Change your attitude during your physical routine, and do not initially attempt the impossible; concentrate first on the basic movements.
Remember that, in self-defence, your main aims are avoidance and awareness; your aim therefore is to be in control of a situation, to walk away or to take that key self-defence action when all else fails and ultimately to carry it out instinctively with neither thought nor hesitation.
SUCCESS therefore will depend very much on your PREPARATION and the WILL TO SUCCEED.
You must NOT break your routine, that cycle of repetitive self-defence movements and your BELIEF in your ability to execute these defensive moves.
In Article 12, we'll begin to make these changes to your mind-set, changes to your habit.
We all have habits - bad, good, dangerous, and life-saving habits - and all of these habits are driven by our subconscious mind.
Your subconscious mind never question what you tell it to do; it will always act on your beliefs, commands, or persistent reactions.
It will not question whether that belief, command, or reaction is right or wrong, and that belief could be that the Earth is flat, as many people believed for hundreds of years, or a comic book defence action against an attack that could leave you, in adulthood, very badly injured.
WE ARE what we REPEATEDLY do.
EXCELLENCE, then, is not an act, BUT A HABIT.
- Aristole Neither Bruce Lee nor our aikido masters were born with these skills.
They began with a belief they could achieve these skills, and over a period of years, they successfully perfected them, but before you begin to make the changes to your habits, there are certain rules that you must follow, and these rules for changing your habits do not only apply to your self-defense.
They can also be very effective for changes you may wish to make in your life, such as regaining yourself confidence, overcoming your fear of public speaking, etc.
- they can all be overcome if you follow these rules.
But first there are certain principles that you must also follow - your success in any changes you wish to make is dependent on your ability to follow a set routine until you have reached your objective.
As an example, if you planned to achieve a physical target of 100 press-ups, you may find that, on your first attempt, you are only able to achieve 10 press-ups; and as you progress through the next two weeks, you may start to achieve, 25 to 30 press-ups.
BUT if you now stopped for the next few days, you would find that the number of press-ups you would now achieve would have decreased to possibly only 14.
There has to be therefore a certain unbroken continuation of your daily press-ups routine until you attain your target of 100 press-ups and where you can then maintain that level.
It takes at least 21 days to break A HABIT - Ervin Handoko Similarly, the same principle applies when you change a bad habit into a good habit: it takes a minimum of 21 days of verbal repetition, visualisation, and belief to create a habit or reverse a negative habit.
In Judo, one of the early masters, Sensei Kyuso Mifuni 10th Dan, taught his students that they would have to practise a technique or movement 10,000 times before it became instinctive.
It is therefore imperative that you maintain an unbroken cycle of repetitions of your technique and mental belief in that technique for a minimum unbroken period of 21 days.
In your daily repetitive actions, you will slowly feel a confidence begin to arise within you, and as you continue with this cycle of repetition, it becomes easier until it becomes a habit, a natural instinct.
Your preparation - Firstly, ask yourself what it is you want to achieve, and then write it down.
Follow it up with a weekly written program, and make your visualisation of your actions and thoughts in the 'now', in the 'I am' and not in the 'I will' or 'I shall'.
Change your attitude during your physical routine, and do not initially attempt the impossible; concentrate first on the basic movements.
Remember that, in self-defence, your main aims are avoidance and awareness; your aim therefore is to be in control of a situation, to walk away or to take that key self-defence action when all else fails and ultimately to carry it out instinctively with neither thought nor hesitation.
SUCCESS therefore will depend very much on your PREPARATION and the WILL TO SUCCEED.
You must NOT break your routine, that cycle of repetitive self-defence movements and your BELIEF in your ability to execute these defensive moves.
In Article 12, we'll begin to make these changes to your mind-set, changes to your habit.