| Learning karate has many advantages. The exercises | | | | pointless, since it is no longer based on reality. |
| build your muscles and improve your general health. | | | | Ignoring our own pain or physical discomfort is a |
| The practice makes your body fit and your | | | | recipe for disaster. When sensations contradict |
| movements precise. Those benefits are indisputable | | | | conclusions, it is high time to re-examine the latter. |
| and martial arts schools seldom forget to mention | | | | 2.- MISTAKEN DECISIONS. Relying on something that |
| them in their advertisements. | | | | is not true is worse that confessing ignorance. |
| However, if you ask experienced judo practitioners | | | | Make-believe prevents individuals from acknowledging |
| about the reason behind their enthusiasm for the | | | | problems and looking for the right answer. |
| sport, you will get a completely different answer. | | | | Self-inflicted blindness destroys man's sense of |
| "The best thing about martial arts," they will tell you, | | | | direction and invalidates his ambitions. |
| "is that you learn to defend yourself in case of an | | | | Keeping your eyes open is the most effective |
| attack." | | | | method to avoid getting into deep trouble in life. |
| Nothing could be further from the truth. People with | | | | When meeting new people, trusting what you see is |
| no karate training are often better skilled at detecting | | | | the only way to form an accurate opinion about their |
| trouble before it appears on the scene. Since they | | | | qualities and ethical standards. Judging strangers by |
| know that they are not trained for combat, they | | | | what they say or by their appearance is a losing |
| avoid physical confrontation. When they experience | | | | proposition. |
| threats, they retreat. When they see danger, they | | | | The most egregious errors are not committed out of |
| keep away from it. | | | | ignorance, but by relying on false stories that we tell |
| On the other hand, how often have you heard | | | | to ourselves. Accidents that tear apart families and |
| stories about some karate expert shot by a criminal | | | | companies could have been frequently prevented by |
| in the street for refusing to surrender his wallet? In | | | | reading the writing on the wall. |
| most cases, if the victim had tried to run away, he | | | | Being brave enough to acknowledge a gap between |
| might have easily escaped. Realizing that few things | | | | belief and fact is the foundation of personal integrity. |
| are as lethal as a false sense of security has | | | | There can be no honesty without courage, no |
| tremendous implications: | | | | serenity without consistency. A wise man trusts his |
| 1.- WRONG PERCEPTIONS. Strong belief in nonsense | | | | perceptions and experience more than anything else. |
| leads men to disregard the evidence of their own | | | | Truth begins and ends with reality. |
| perceptions. When that happens, thinking becomes | | | | |