Giving Yourself an Idiot Mark
Mistakes are not the realm of the beginner, they’re the realm of the innovator. If you’re not making errors you’re not trying hard enough, challenging yourself, or pushing your edges.
Devon Boorman ·
Training Blog
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Failure and the Journey of Success
It can be challenging to fail your own students. I care for them and empathize with both the disappointment and frustration. As a teacher I share in those feelings as I am a direct part of each student’s journey.
Devon Boorman ·
Unsolicited Help isn't Help—It's Harm
This is not an article about not giving help, it’s simply about being effective and constructive with the help you offer. If you truly want to help those around you grow, which I’m sure you do, find ways to do it that genuinely create the outcome you want. Here are a few strategies.
Devon Boorman ·
Always Be Both a Student and a Teacher
The act of sharing something with others increases retention, understanding, and personal fulfillment. The most important thing is to realize being a teacher does not require hierarchy or dominance. Be honest about your abilities and teach from a place of transparency without pretense.
Devon Boorman ·
Good Fighting Is Not An Excuse for Bad Behaviour
Those to whom we offer respect and friendship become a type of leader in our lives, and we look to leaders to share with us their ideas on how to live. This is especially true when we are entering a new community. These role models tell us how to behave in that community. We learn from them what is acceptable and what is not.
Devon Boorman ·
How to Have an Effective Training Partnership
From early experience I learned that a simple partnership can be a powerful and productive force in one’s life. A little bit of social pressure and mutual accountability can go a long way to helping one get going and stay going. Fast forward 20 years and now I use that buddy system in nearly every part of my life.
Devon Boorman ·
The Difference Between a Fighter and a Martial Artist
If you can kick butt, does that make you a martial artist? Not necessarily. If you seek to be an artist, you must first develop the palette. That means you can’t focus only on the immediate results of one tool; you need to think longer term.
Devon Boorman ·
Am I Learning Fast Enough?
I have found that people these days seem to be notoriously hard on themselves and are terrible at accurately assessing their own progress—I certainly have seen this in myself. Yet it is not an unfair thing to assess one’s progress as it can give a view into the effectiveness of your training. To do so fairly requires that you first have a few things in place.
Devon Boorman ·
It's Never Too Late
Unless you plan to die ten years from now, there’s still plenty of time to gain a notable level of proficiency. Now is your only starting point. As scarce as it can sometimes seem, time is the one resource we can truly count on.
Devon Boorman ·
Willpower is for Suckers: Make a Training System to Succeed
Any plan based on willpower for success is doomed. Success in anything is largely based on rhythm. The ability to take gradual and reliable steps toward your goal. Crunching away on the 10,000 hours of mastery is not going to come from a few good bursts of training, it’s going to come from a regular methodical practice over weeks and years.
Devon Boorman ·