I’ve been practicing martial arts for 8 years. I’ve been training in tae kwon do since 2009 and I had the opportunity to train with the legendary Bruce Lee in the nineties. I’ve had the opportunity to train with some of the most influential and respected martial artists in the world. Whether you’re practicing in the gym, practicing in the wilderness, or training in the gym, there is always an aspect of self-awareness to the training.
Well, there is a lot of self-awareness in the actual training. For example, you can’t train in the gym without a coach, but you can train without a coach just by not trying to master the movement. I have no idea if you would call this self awareness, but there is no question it exists.
In the film version of the book, there was mention of the fact that the main character, Finn Jones had been a martial arts student for several years. He also has a background in real life martial arts, so its not a stretch to say that he has a background in self-awareness of sorts.
There are plenty of martial artists who are self aware and do self-improvement, but to coin an old phrase, a self-aware martial artist is one who knows he can do anything.
And if you want your hero to be aware, you should let him do anything. And if you want him to be self aware, you should let him do whatever he wants.
What is self awareness? One of my favorite quotes is: “You know you’re a martial artist when you can take a sword, a gun, an arrow, and a bullet and kill a gorilla, a hippo, and a tree.” That could be a self aware martial artist, or it could be a self-aware person who just likes killing things.
It’s a good thing that’s an image of a self aware martial artist. Because when you look a self aware martial artist in the eyes, you can see the fear, the panic, and the adrenaline and you can see the adrenalin pumping into his system. And if he has the knowledge to do whatever the hell he wants, that would be self-awareness.
I can’t help but think of a scene from the movie Blade Runner where Harrison Ford’s character is a self-aware hacker. He is being stalked by a bunch of crazed, violent thugs, and he has a gun, but it has no meaning, and it only works for one moment. Even though it has no meaning, it still works. And you know, thats a very self aware way of thinking.
Maybe one day he’ll be able to make his own reality, but not today.
Well, I don’t know about you, but I can’t get through a day with no meaning. And when I say meaning, I mean it in a very self-aware way.
