PASSION, PERSEVERANCE, AND SACRIFICE TO ACHIEVE GREATNESS
PASSION, PERSEVERANCE, AND SACRIFICE TO ACHIEVE GREATNESS
By J. Roger Cavanaugh
8th Dan Black Belt, Taekwondo
I’m 66 years old. I have trained in one martial or another since 1977. Primarily, I trained in Taekwondo and Tang Soo Do, with a short stint in Kung Fu and Tai Chi. I’ve not competed in hundreds of tournaments, although I have won my fair share of the ones I competed in. Whether I won or lost, it never really mattered that much. Ask anybody that knows me, and they’ll tell you I’m a training fanatic. My goal was not trophies, it was to be the best I could be. I would train for hours by myself. Everything I did was aimed towards improving my Taekwondo skills. I ran endless miles, lifted crazy weights, did thousands of pushups and sit-ups, stretched for hours on end, and took any supplement or shake I thought would help me to be stronger at my Taekwondo. I’ve thrown tens of thousands of kicks, punches, and blocks. I trained for hours every day, 6 days a week (Sundays were always my day of rest). As a result, I did become a very good martial artist. I’m proud of my achievements. I was, in my younger years, what I consider is an elite martial arts athlete. I was an expert at what I did. The following is how I did it, and how you, too, can do it.
What does it takes to be an expert at anything you want to accomplish? In my case, I have identified three things that facilitated my achievement of expert status in my chosen passion, Taekwondo. First of all, it has to be your passion. It must be some goal you want to achieve to your highest potential. You must fall in love with it. And the second part of the equation is very simple. Perseverance and Sacrifice. In order to achieve proficiency, excellence, expertise in any endeavor, you must spend many hours alone, away from your friends, relatives, social functions, and, for lack of a better way to describe, a “normal” life.
Elite status in any pursuit is achievable for most, but for most very difficult and rarely obtained. You must spend hours, countless hours, alone… training and honing your skills, as well as training with others better than you. To be elite in any activity, you must give up the time spent with friends and family. You must sacrifice time away from your wife, your children, your parents, and anyone else you hold close to your heart. This is why only a few become great, become elite, become experts at anything in life.
To anyone who has a passion for something in particular, whether it’s taekwondo, chess, computer programming, or whatever, don’t expect that a high level skill will be easily handed to you. You must work, and I mean really work harder than you’ve ever imagined, to become really good, an expert. You must read, study, evaluate and reevaluate. You must take classes, watch videos, and practice countless hours. You must study your mentors, those who you want to someday be as good as. You must train until you feel like you’re going to collapse. And then train more. The funny thing is that if your pursuit is your passion (and it should be!), the journey seems less like work and more like a calling; a vocation. Yes, it’s hard work, but the challenge is what keeps you training. The challenge illustrates the extent of accomplishment and success.
It sounds painful, and at times it is. But the benefits you receive are indescribable. The confidence, the discipline, the respect, the physical and mental growth you will acquire will more than make up for the sweat, the pain, and sacrifice you went through. And the knowledge and wisdom you gain will propel you to even greater heights as a human being.
Whatever your passion is, work harder than you thought is possible. Then work some more, because once you think you’ve reached your highest human potential, you will realize that you can accomplish even more. You see, the journey continues as long as you pursue it to greater heights. In conclusion, the solution to greatness in any endeavor boils down to finding your passion and pursuing it with incredible perseverance and unrelenting sacrifice. I hope this assists you in reaching for your own greatness and success in life.
