Balancing Passion and Purpose

Martial arts was not only my personal journey of finding purpose and also impressing others with some cool kicks and punches. This particular sentence has only told you about the beginning, with me finding purpose through taekwondo, and the end, with finding the confidence to teach and demonstrate what I have learned. The purpose of writing this is to focus more on how I was able to continue this unprecedented sport while still having a life outside of it.

Balance: the management of conflicting priorities by distributing focus in a way that feels healthy and sustainable.

I added this definition before I start writing the rest of this blog because the word balance is not only what the topic is about, but also for the reader to understand how important it is as I continue martial arts today. Taekwondo was an answer to my following questions:

How do I live an authentic life instead of feeling as if I have no worth due to what is expected? If I were to then change my life, how will I sustain it?

You might be wondering the same things I did when I came across these questions: how could a martial art be a solution? In this paragraph I will answer every question I have displayed. Since authenticity is defined as the degree to which your choices align with your true identity instead of living based on social norms, taekwondo answered this question because martial arts are significantly less common compared to mainstream sports. Not only did I begin training for something that is unique, but over time it changed my identity so I could live an authentic, genuine life. For my second question, taekwondo helped because it gave me a support system because I was surrounded by others who shared the same interest.

Freedom and Responsibility

Jean-Paul Sartre was a French philosopher who was a key figure in existentialism. This section of my writing will be dedicated to him– but undoubtedly not because he was a martial artist, rather that existentialism connects to how I balanced martial arts and other parts of my life. One of the key concepts from Sartre is that since humans start their life as nothing, this means that we have freedom to be ourselves in any way (I will use this belief as my journey during martial arts). This choice we have can affect how others see us, or how we see ourselves. My choice to begin martial arts was so I could find purpose in my life instead of being overshadowed by others. Taekwondo has led me to want change because absolute freedom causes us to be destined to do something the moment we start our life, or also our journeys.

Starting taekwondo was only the beginning, and soon I understood that if I wanted to truly change then I also have a responsibility: balancing school, martial arts, and being myself. Jean-Paul states that we are completely responsible for our choices, and not others or any external circumstances. To connect this to my time doing taekwondo, I had to strive for balance in order to maintain the happiness I felt during my first day trying taekwondo. 

Throughout this experience, I was not alone. Starting taekwondo in middle school meant that I did not have a job to pay $120 per month. Doing this at home would most likely seem as the best solution, but I knew that staying consistent is a huge problem. Training at home would mean that it required total responsibility for each session while also trying to not procrastinate and lose motivation. With my own understanding of my poor self-discipline, my parents were convinced that paying for taekwondo would be fine if I wanted it that bad. Seeing instructors and having sessions that were often full of people, this kept me focused as I realized that people would watch every move I made when practicing poomsae or sparring with instructors because everyone else was not as tall. Not only did the support from my partners help to make me keep going, but the price of each session stayed in my head throughout my 2 years of taekwondo. 

Getting to the Point

After I have written this lengthy segment on my research on philosophy and connecting it to martial arts, the rest of this blog will be about my actual experience (which is a bit uninteresting). Before I tell you a few strategies I used to establish my sustainable routine, there are some elements that I had to consider when making this:

• I did taekwondo three times per week, and each session was an hour long

• I lacked self discipline, time management, and previously relied on motivation

• I did not have any hobbies or sports before martial arts

These are the details that I had to think about as I began to realize over time that something had to change in order to genuinely enjoy this martial art. Although I will write this in an order that seems like my life changed subsequently, it clearly did not due to the elements listed above. Anyway, I will start by talking about setting boundaries and dedicating time for every activity while still prioritizing time for rest.

At the time I chose taekwondo as a personal priority that is as important as school or video games, it was also when I faced a stressful situation. I noticed that every time I had a session, I was not prepared because I was only halfway through my assignments before it was a 15-minute drive that was supposed to be 25 since I was about to be late. Doing what I love meant learning to protect my time from being taken from others and myself. This meant I had to say “no” to staying up playing Arsenal on Roblox, spending time helping to tutor others when I have my own problems that would impact my schedule more, and wasting time staring at walls. All of these commitments in the past were the reason why my time was not used well, and I had to learn how to decline these decisions in order to make time for taekwondo.

Learning to say “no” was definitely the easiest, or even the funnest, part of balancing every activity in my life. Although I have gotten rid of most distractions or commitments that did not align with my important schedule, it was still required to now take action by knowing how to manage my time. For the assignments that I used to struggle with due to losing interest, I used the pomodoro technique to help since it allowed for breaks while also depending on time so I had something to look forward to. Since I always had a phone or computer to help me study, I could always use a timer and keep it near me so as I work I can also look at the numbers decrease. This helps with focusing on my work because the constant change in numbers made me aware that I did not have infinite time– especially since I started taekwondo. 

Advice on Achieving Balance

Quitting taekwondo was not a decision based on how well I have done during my two years of learning, but because the price I have mentioned earlier was unreasonably increasing every belt I earned. Martial arts is still something I love today, and I continue to train even without an instructor or sparring partner. Since I have given the strategies I used while I did taekwondo, there were still some extra steps I took during my first year of high school to help me continue doing my best as I had a new experience.

Every morning (including weekends) I would spend the first 10-15 minutes in the morning writing down the important tasks I had to do that day. This helped me overall with balancing school and life because it puts emphasis on what I had to do and gave me an idea on how I will spend my time. Since I know I struggle to remember things that are even important, such as missing assignments or meetings, writing these on my phone helped the most throughout the school year because of how often I use my phone in class.

Around the end of the year was when I had to study harder and focus more at home since finals were soon. I started to notice that I had a lot of extra time in class because fortunately, the teachers were understanding enough to give us some rest before having multiple tests, essays, and projects. Also, something I noticed that was the opposite of how good my teachers’ actions were was that I was always tired after school and I struggled with staying awake to study or even do simple assignments that would’ve taken minutes instead of an hour. With this problem, I chose to stop wasting time in school to talk with my friends and to start using my time better as if I went back in time– where I had to spend my time better at home to get ready for taekwondo. During any extra time in class, I started working on assignments or projects that I used to push onto my time at home. During lunch, I would find a classroom early and pick a seat that would be away from most people so I could work even when people started to come in to hang out. Using my time better at school meant that it significantly lowered the amount of assignments I had to do at home, and it even gave me a chance to take a nap for the first time in years.

—Julia Martin