Jun
4
Habitforce and Aikido
I have been training aikido at Honbu Dojo (Aikikai Headquarters) since February, and steadily ramped up the number of times a week that I train, from twice a week in January, to four times a week in March, to averaging seven times a week now, including about five times a week in the morning, at 6:30am.
Do you remember as a kid running on the playground or park, marveling at how your body responds, testing to see how fast your legs could take you? Or that feeling of freedom when you’d just learned how to ride a bike? That’s the way practicing Aikido feels after you’ve gotten the basics down – every practice session is learning to move with greater freedom.
I simply joined the Honbu Dojo, and thereafter gradually increased the number of practice sessions I went to. I did this without telling anyone outside of Honbu Dojo that I was planning on doing this. In hindsight, this was a good thing, because after doing so, I told some friends and got some friendly jabs about my excessive enthusiasm. These might have deterred me before I had developed the habit-force required to attend morning classes. When I spoke with some people who knew me before I started practicing this much they had some fun with it – which I was surprised by, since it didn’t even occur to me that it was odd that I practiced this much. But these jabs hurt a little. I felt, like, well, a freak. Let’s change the subject.
Within Honbu Dojo, what I’m doing is completely normal. My behavior is “average” – among my peers, many train five or six days a week at the Honbu, then once or twice at a local dojo, and some even attend several classes a day at the Honbu.
Once, before the 7am basics class, I knelt lined up with other students before class waiting for the instructor to come. One woman came in and looked to the man at my left, smiled, and said “I couldn’t stay away!” It emerged that a group of people from the dojo had gone drinking after practice the previous evening until past 11pm, and here they were at morning practice! Habitforce!
So, when making changes and installing new habits
- it’s probably best not to tell anyone. They might discourage you, or they might make you feel good before you’ve actually done anything. Better to wait until after you’ve already done it
- find a group of people for whom what you’re about to take up is normal behavior. They already have the value system and habits that you will need in order to succeed.
