While we work hard doing everything we can to avoid failure, the fact of the matter is we will never fully appreciate our achievements and successes without it. We would also never realize our short comings and weaknesses and therefore never improve our abilities in order to reach greater achievements and successes. Without failure, we’ll never fully know our limits, and if you haven’t found your limits, then you haven’t reached your potential.

In the martial arts it’s inevitable, you will fail at some point. Not because it’s necessarily difficult, but because the martial arts are all about finding and attempting to reach your potential by realizing your weaknesses and then strengthening them, whether it be physically, mentally or spiritually.

A recent rank testing comes to mind while on this topic. I recently had a student test for his 1st degree black belt in Taekwondo. While students do have set material they know they have to demonstrate at testing, I always have something additional for them to do for their black belt testing that they are not told about. Every student has a different reason for practicing the martial arts. Some want to learn self-defense, others for fitness, some enjoy the tradition and culture just to name a few. One of the primary reasons for this student was self-defense. With this in mind, the last part of his testing was to spar every student at the testing (approximately 15 students). One student after another went on the attack, in some cases multiple students attacked at once. I had designated a couple of them to go full contact without warning. Did he successfully “win” every match? No. Was he satisfied with his performance? No. Did he avoid hard, potentially damaging hits? No. Did he pass? YES! Why? While the student took some hard hits, he was still standing at the end and held his composure.

The purpose of this portion of the test was two things. First, to see if he could withstand the onslaught of not only every student, but multiple students at once. Mind you self-defense is not necessarily “winning” a fight but defending oneself against harm as it is rarely a fair fight in the streets. Secondly, it was to create failure. Upon reflection of the testing, the student and I discovered his weaknesses and sparring mistakes. While I could have simply told him where he was going to fail, it is not until you experience the failure that you fully understand why you failed and how to correct it. With this knowledge he now fully understands what needs to be accomplished before his next rank testing and will become a greater martial artist because of it. Becoming a black belt is not about being the best, it’s about understanding that you are not the best, but still progressing in a clear direction towards your goals.

We’ve all heard the saying, “When you fall off the horse, dust yourself off and climb back on”. What we tend to forget is that in order to get back on the horse after falling, is that we first have to get on the horse to begin with. This is where most fail. Unfortunately this is one failure that doesn’t lead to success. So find your horse, climb on, and know that you will fall eventually, but also know you’ll be better for it.