Be proud of your growth, the accomplishments you have made, the life you have made for yourself, and know that you are going to continue to improve and expand.One thing I have been really trying to do is appreciate my mistakes and failures. There is a lot of negativity associated with them. Hurt, regret, pain I may have caused others, things that were supposed to work out and were not great in the end, things not being the same as they were. But those mistakes and failures, are a reminder of what not to do, of what not to be, they point me in the direction of where I want to go, who I want to be, and what I *can* be if I continue in the right directions. I think that is a more positive outlook to have.
When I was a younger student, and I think for a lot of newer students, it can be very frustrating when you want to be the perfect Jedi Knight, right now, and for as hard as you work, you still have far to go. You want that respect and recognition from your peers, but what a lot of people miss, is, it's not their respect and recognition that matters. At the end of the day, you are the one evaluating yourself. You know the truth behind what you do everyday, and whether or not you are making progress, or just wish that you were. And one thing we all have to keep in mind is that there is no such thing as the perfect Jedi (at least not yet
), our goal is to be the best Jedi that we can each individually be, set the best examples that we can, and represent our path and everybody walking it in the best way that we possibly can. That is ultimately what we have to dedicate ourselves to do.I think a lot of Jedi Training, in my own experience of course, is based on some key things:
Improvement, everyday, every week, every month, if you are meeting goals, reaching a farther understanding in your lessons, testing your skills out in your life, such as getting up and moving farther in your physical fitness, actively reflecting on yourself and training, helping people around you, giving back when you are able, ect. The more work you put into the Jedi Path, the closer you will be to achieving your long term goals. :shufflin:
Baby steps, being comfortable with sometimes needing to take them.
Never meditated before? You have to realize it will take time to slow down your thoughts and relax. :meditate:
Really let yourself go physically? you may have to start out at square one, walking everyday, maybe light yoga-or lifting, light bike riding, there is many activities you can do.
Get angry easily? :lightsaber: Learn how to cultivate peace within yourself, walk away instead of shouting something you will regret later, learn how to focus on the words being said then the tone being used.
Don't know yourself all that well?
Sometimes you will have to do things out of your comfort zone, to truly know yourself better. Sometimes you will find yourself even looking in the wrong places for what you really need. Maybe you have hidden troubles that need to come to the surface and be examined.It takes time. A lot of time, truly. Sometimes you will be excelling and then fall of the wagon, and have to start over. What is great about it, is that over time you see yourself becoming a different, and stronger person. You look back at what you have achieved and smile, because you know how hard you worked for it. The more you work for something, the more valuable it is. :woot:
Patience, I like to say to the people close to me sometimes, when you can't be patient with others, be patient with yourself.
I am sure most of us have been here at some point, you are in your car driving along, and someone in front of you is going soooooo sloooooow. :twitch: :facepalm: And maybe you want to yell, or throw something, but in those moments, what do we ultimately need to do? Calm ourselves down, breathe, and accept what is going on and move forward. Think to ourselves: what now?
Or working with someone who drives you absolutely crazy, and I mean, insanely crazy.
That person is being themselves, and once again, we need to accept it, and focus on what is in our control. Can you ask them to stop? Of course. Can you have a heart to heart with them? Sure. But you can also choose to not let it bother you. I have found many times that when I become angry at others, or impatient with them, I am really just upset with myself for having a shorter fuse, for not having patience. Internal patience extends outwards, just like peace, serenity, and harmony do. And we create those things by first being patient with ourselves.You are the coach, you have to make time to sit with yourself and evaluate, what is working? what is not working? What have you learned? What do you need to work on? Are you following the Circle/Rules of Jedi Behavior/the Code?
Also, what do good coaches do? They are usually patient, have reasonable expectations for their players, and push them to reach their full potential.
You are the player, you have to know your goals, where you want to go, how hard you are working to play the game, you have to put in the work, the effort, the training.
We ultimately have to understand this takes time. Even Jedi Knights fall and have short comings. I have seen people who have been on this path for a day struggle, and I have seen Jedi who have been in the Jedi community for 20+ years struggle.
It is up to each of us to decide if we are going to be a Jedi or not, we each control how much effort we put into this path, and how close we walk it, or how far we go along it.
We are all fighting the good fight.