Who is your role model?
When you look at Daniel Coyle’s The Little Book Of Talent, a book that helps the reader develop their talents or special interests through a series of tips, one of the first tips that Coyle provides the reader is “Stare at Who You Want to Become” (Coyle 1).
I think any martial artist can look into their own journey and they can easily identify who their role models are whether it be in the traditional martial arts or in the mixed martial arts world. In the traditional martial arts we can look at someone’s sparring technique or the way that they do their form. In a mixed martial arts realm a practitioner can identify someone that they want to emulate and how they meld the different styles into their own.
Having a role model provides us with a template of who we can become. It is a sense of motivation, but it is also a way for us to gain some camaraderie. We are able to share our goals and aspirations with our role models and put ourselves in a spot of healthy vulnerability. We are not simply looking at a stencil for our technique, but a good human example of someone who we should become. What type of training does this person do to reach their level of expertise? What is their thought process? How do they approach different aspects of training?
A lot of times, our role models teach us lessons in areas outside of the expertise we idolize them for. We can get a peek into how to improve our lives in small ways based on how they live theirs.
Who is your role model? Why are they your role model? If you look into your reasons you may uncover more of how you can emulate them. If you do not have a role model yet, I challenge you to find one in or out of the martial arts. It will provide you with guidance to improve multiple areas of your life that no one can do alone.
Sources:
Coyle, Daniel. The Little Book of Talent. Random House, 2012.
