I think people often worship their problems, and this directly ties into this post. Eliezer covered this with Musashi’s proverb of how one should strike the enemy rather than their blade:
The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy’s cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him.
I noticed this today at martial arts when sparring someone with four times my experience; I was so intimidated that all my strikes were aimed at their guard! There was no way I was going to score a point unless they moved into my kicks. This was ridiculous. I fixed it and actually landed a few blows (to be sure, I would have gotten rolled if they actually tried).
It’s been said before, it’s been said by this very post, and yet there is still value in repeating the idea once again: do not worship your problems. You may have read this post and thought, “gee, I’m not like alkjash, there’s no way I’d win that competition”. Maybe so, but I am confident that there are problems you could easily decimate if you let yourself win.
I think people often worship their problems, and this directly ties into this post. Eliezer covered this with Musashi’s proverb of how one should strike the enemy rather than their blade:
I noticed this today at martial arts when sparring someone with four times my experience; I was so intimidated that all my strikes were aimed at their guard! There was no way I was going to score a point unless they moved into my kicks. This was ridiculous. I fixed it and actually landed a few blows (to be sure, I would have gotten rolled if they actually tried).
It’s been said before, it’s been said by this very post, and yet there is still value in repeating the idea once again: do not worship your problems. You may have read this post and thought, “gee, I’m not like alkjash, there’s no way I’d win that competition”. Maybe so, but I am confident that there are problems you could easily decimate if you let yourself win.
Strike true, or don’t strike at all.