by Marty Farrell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leKayOU8tik
“Victory has defeated you” as quoted by Bane from the Dark Knight rises is a common theme, in that we deceive ourselves that we are “on the right path” because we are “successful”.
Being successful is often confused with “right” or “wrong”, a condition we put on ourselves. Reality is, success is multi-level and varied from one person to the next. There are several avenues to get to high level in kettlebells. I’m living it. The application of knowledge is otherwise known as wisdom.
There are a lot of knowledgeable people who are unwise. This is why I like kettlebells, it boils down to who did more reps. For example, I gained and gained and made Master of Sport. I was successful and Victory has defeated me. My best performance in biathlon was trumped by a dislocated shoulder, wrought of my ego to “try it”.
To get to next level I needed to climb back down the mountain. To do that is to rid the ego. Oh how clever it is and always seems to have the right answer. To listen to people who were not as good as me in kettlebells and understand the limitations that I had specifically was the answer because they saw things/nuances I need to correct.
I was lost “sometimes we have to lose our mind before we can come to our senses” as quoted by the best-selling author the Peaceful warrior. For me specifically, this alludes to active recovery and mobility. This is something lately that has become a staple in training. Not to be confused with, “I walked 1 mile up every mountain in the world, I’m well rounded. ” I’m a jack of all trades.” This implies that mastery is a niche and “Jack of all trades” is well rounded. That’s true in the short term. In the long term, the formula to true mastery can be applied to any discipline. It just takes focus in that direction and will power.
A Jack of all trades doesn’t even exist. It is a made up term to deceive. Everyone has the potential for Mastery in something. Back to the mountain analogy, this is what bakes the noodle. Only the guy on top of Cloud’s Rest (9900 feet) can see how much further to Everest (29 K feet) he would have to go. Those that traverse 500 feet or on the ground see them as both high level and are ignorant to the truth. This could be misconstrued as elitism but think a little harder, because it’s a fact. People who climb other mountains are still successful, but would they be willing to give all that up to potentially climb higher?
If it bruises the EGO its tough if not impossible depending on the person. Most people don’t and that’s not a bad thing. Again, it is what it is. Did you ever hear people say “Well I’m good too.” They focus on their trump, destination rather than the journey. And forget about enjoyment and instead focus on the negatively of comparing to others, a self-destructive path. One mountain looks as good as another.
That’s the problem with common opinion. If people truly wanted to achieve, to really achieve, and marketing didn’t have the influence it did in today’s society where its too much?, there would be less information out there or less misinformation for that matter, a misrepresentation etc. Ever notice all the silly catch phrases that everyone seems to have? The heart of it is that people seek approval rather than trust intuition, not their coaches intuition or even their “best” friend but their own.
It takes courage and it takes strength to traverse your own path.
(the picture is a courtesy of the Museum Of Weightlifting in Saint Petersburg, sponsored by IKSFA)