Self-Awareness

I've noticed over the last few days that one of the keys to success for me is self-awareness. The more that I train, the more a technique or pattern of thought becomes closer to becoming second nature. I want everything to become automatic so that I don't have to think about doing something; I just do it. Until I get to that point, however, I need to be consciously aware of what I'm doing.

Case in point -  today I had a pretty good day for kindnesses. I said hello to a lot of different people, which I don't always do. The difference today was that I was trying hard to find opportunities to be friendly. I was looking people in the eye and saying hello wherever I could. Most other days I don't really think about doing this and it's not automatic yet. Despite the progress I've made on this front, I still have to be aware of what I'm doing and what I'm trying to accomplish.

This applies to other aspects of my training as well. If I do my forms without concentrating on my stances, my footwork is poor. If I practice roundhouse kicks without concentrating on where my knee is pointing, my kicks will be poor. This probably sounds pretty obvious to most people reading this but it's important for me because I feel like with all the reps I've done as part of the I Ho Chuan, sometimes it's easy to lose sight of what I'm trying to do and instead get caught up in the raw numbers. Quantity is important but so is quality and I find it difficult to achieve consistent quality in my training if I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing. This all comes down to self-awareness.

Cory Smid
http://kungfucory.blogspot.ca/