Never Good Enough

If I had to sum up the concept of budo for myself — and this is not a traditional definition; there is some personal abstraction and artistic interpretation going on here — I would define it as the deep and intimate knowledge that where I am now is not good enough.  I can go further.  I can be better.  In every way.  I cannot allow myself the luxury of a moment’s peace in my quest.  Why?  Because would be wasteful and weak.  A warrior is efficient, not wasteful, especially with the most precious commodity of all: time.  We can’t buy more of it.  We can only use what we have, knowing that our lives can be snatched from us in a heartbeat for reasons that are utterly beyond our control.

In the end, we don’t train to get more time: that is, we’re not training to save our lives from some theoretical foe that may try to kill us in the future and take our time away from us.  In our modern society, we would probably do better to worry about car crashes.  Instead, however, we are training to prevent the worst foe of all — mediocrity living deep within our own hearts — from taking the only time from us that really counts: this present moment.

It’s not about what you have done for me lately.  It’s about what you’re doing for yourself right now.  There is no other time than today, and there is no future opportunity.  If you fail, do so in spectacular fashion.  If you succeed, then change the world with it.  If you are a different person when you go to bed tonight than you were when you woke up, in even the smallest way, today has been a good day.