‘Fail Big’ in Your Aikido Practice…
Quite a weird thing to say if I am honest but I have been meditating on this for quite some time and I feel it is important to talk about failing in the Dojo.
In fact, there is no such thing as failing if we look at the bigger picture as it is part of our learning process to make mistakes and to learn from them so that we can build a stronger Aikido.
However, I do feel the need to talk about this as since we know that there is no ‘competition’ in Aikido with one another so no notion of selecting a winner and a loser at any point when we train Aikido, which is one thing that drew me to it in the first place.
We are unfortunately living in society where we are taught to compete with one another, to be stronger than him or her etc. This mindset can be destructive and damaging to our society on the whole as it brings us to be more selfish and all we care is to win at all cost. It does not matter how we could affect our entourage, or environment as the goal is to win this or make this target for financial profit, which may be extremely damaging to our peers mentally driving them to depression or worst damaging to our environment for some cases if we talk about plastic production, fossil fuel side effect with our environment, the list goes on and I think you will see where I am coming from.
If we were all practicing Aikido and understand this Martial Art, I am convinced the World would be a better place. Aikido teaches us to be strong supporting each other not against each other without rivalry. Failing is one part that I would say we must accept in order to humble ourselves too. And failing should not be something we would fear in the Dojo, quite the opposite – we must fail in order to understand what is wrong and from our mistake, we then re-build, re-start and execute the correct movement so to speak. The word ‘fail’ is in quite stigmatic due to our upbringing in this society – but in Aikido (like any other Martial Arts), we learn to embrace it and face it, as it is the only way for someone to become good in Aikido – you must fail first before you get it right.
No one was born to be a genius and get everything right for the first time in this world, no matter what it is. Those who succeeded to be way beyond anyone are the ones that work harder to make it a success. We can see some very talented Aikido instructors and we think how did they do that technique, it was amazing. They simply work hard to reach this level and they too went through failures before getting the techniques right.
So my subject quoting ‘Fail Big’ means exactly that, don’t be afraid to get the movement or technique wrong in the Dojo. It is a place where you can make mistakes to perfect your technique, your mind and spirit to be forged too.
However, I must add that it would be wrong if you make the same mistake over and over again and refuse to change despite Teachers’ advice. Either you are having issues correcting the mistakes, which sometimes could happen due to technique being quite advanced or that you content with what you are doing and wish not to make any additional improvement (you may have fallen into ego trap).
Remember when we practice Aikido, we should do so with a beginner’s mind no matter what level anyone has attained in rank. Ultimately, I will say this: we are daily (until we die) fighting with our own ego. Aikido is an instrument to help you stay humble if you are truthful with yourself and wish to progress in Aikido. The physical Aikido movements we do, affect and forge our spirit and mind for the better. We become better human beings when we humble and accept our errors.
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes or don’t be deflated, fail in your techniques and understand what went wrong from your teacher so that you can work on them and become a better Aikidoka step by step…