Priorities and Distractions

There are always things that will vie for your time. The question is, what will you decide to make a priority?

I've recently taken up the phrase, "Do what you need to do." I'd like people to do certain things or go certain places, but they have other things vying for their time, and I just tell them to do what they need to do.

What does that have to do with training? Well, my opinion is that once you sign that waiver and buy your uniform - basically, when you decide you want to do this - showing up to training should be your priority. There will, without fail, be something else you could be doing, something else that's also demanding your time. You have to make a choice: Will you be distracted by those other tasks or will you commit to coming to training?

I understand that some people get into this art and realize that maybe it isn't for them after all. Or life circumstances prevent them from pursuing this for the time being. I don't judge them for that or think ill of them.

The same goes for budoka who've made the commitment to train, but things come up and maybe they have to miss a few classes. Maybe a lot of classes. I hope that they do at least some sort of practice on their own while they're away, but that's their choice. What I'm really watching for with people who have to miss training for an extended period of time is where their focus is. When the thing demanding their time and attention passes, do they return to training?

Reading that for myself, it sounds like I view the things that take us away from training as distractions, regardless of their necessity. Well, that's not entirely wrong. A distraction is defined as "a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else." I definitely advocate being fully present in whatever you're doing - what's the point, otherwise? - but the thing itself is, by definition, a distraction from training.

I don't think training is the end all be all of life. That would be an unhealthy way to live. But I do think that once you make the commitment to train, it becomes woven into your life, which means it's not as optional as, say, whether or not you wear socks today.

I might just be making all this up, projecting my own experience onto what I think others ought to think/act. Or maybe the only way to continue training is not so much make a choice every time, but to make one choice and act is if there isn't another one to be made: train Bujinkan or do not. That's pretty stark, but I do allow for exceptions; there is a life outside the dojo that demands attention, after all. It's just keeping those things in their place and maintaining focus that I wish I saw more people doing.

A penny for your thoughts. Do you agree? Disagree? Any additional comments? Maybe some sudden insights into the meaning of the universe?