My 7th grade science teacher was a strict middle-aged woman who was passionate about science. But that is not what I remember most about her.
What will always stand out to me is that she was a black belt. I do not remember what type of martial arts she studied, but I do remember feeling safe, that there was no threat of an intruder stealing our graduated cylinders.
One day in class, she broke a wood board in half with one swift punch. I do not think she did that as a science lesson, I think it was more of an intimidation technique. Whatever her reason, I was in awe that someone could do such a thing, let alone a science teacher.
I have never tried to punch my hand through anything and the closest I have come to being a black belt is pretending to sword fight with an empty roll of wrapping paper, so I have never quite understood how someone is able to break boards or bricks with their bare hands.
I always assumed you had to be big, strong and have fast hands. So how do you explain my science teacher being able to do that? While size, speed and strength all certainly play into it, there is actually an even more important element.
When we go to punch something, our natural tendency is to slow down just before impact. This could be called our body’s self-preservation instinct. Our body tries to decelerate because we do not want get hurt.
One of the techniques taught in martial arts is the ability to deprogram this hesitation instinct. When a person attempts to break an object in half, they are taught to visualize driving their fist past the target all the way through the other side of the object. It is vital to follow through.
Our self-preservation instinct is simply looking out for our well-being, but as my 7th grade science teacher was aware, there are certain times that it can get in the way.
When we are chasing our dreams, self-preservation will be a big part of our ability to take chances. In order to do great things, we will come across situations where we feel there is a risk we could get hurt. This can be described as fear, but it is also our brain trying to protect us.
For example, my brain knows I don’t like public speaking. So it uses fear to try and talk me out of doing it. I do not think of fear as an enemy in that case. It is simply my mentality acting as a self-preservation tactic to prevent me from the uneasiness I feel when public speaking.
That is all well and good (I appreciate the protection), but I know that in the process of chasing my dream of getting my book into the hands of more readers, I am going to have to do some public speaking.
So what needs to give?
Like we learned earlier from martial arts, in order to bust through, we need to deprogram certain hesitation instincts. Instead of pulling our proverbial hand back when approached with an opportunity that we might fear, we need to visualize all the way through to the other side of the target.
Our ability to do this and then follow through will make up for all the size, speed and strength we may lack.
Photo credit: Wikipedia
