What are your goals this year?

I want to wish all my readers of this blog a happy new year. Maybe there are only two of you, but what the heck, I wish you a really blessed New year anyway! :-)

Anyway, I would like to start off the year by asking if you have any goals for the year. You would be surprised at the number of people who look at me blankly when I ask them that. Isn't the aim of martial arts just to train? Well, is the aim of driving just to drive? You got to have a direction

Now I'm number 1 or at least 2 for being notoriously shy about setting goals. Maybe it's because I am scared of not achieving them. But guess what, getting older and other priorities means that I can't keep pretending it's business as usual; whatever that means. I don't know how much time I have to be able to train in the short or long term so I have to set some realistic aims

Hopefully, I can get my shodan in Judo this year. And in Jits, I want to be a solid blue belt 3 striper at the end. Now I know some people balk at the setting of belt or rank goals as not being in the 'spirit' of martial arts. May I contend that it is.

To get to whatever higher rank compared to where you are at the moment - you have to improve. Yes, that means hard work and sacrifice. Like it or not. And so the setting of wanting to achieve higher ranks is an acknowledgement that life is not going to be so easy anymore and one that is to be encouraged