The Art of the Hands & Feet

So yesterday was board breaking night at my Tae Kwon Do class. And board breaking is always interesting - interesting to see, to watch, and even to do. There are several ways someone can break a board, but usually you use your bare feet or hands to smash through [& I won't lie - sometimes it can hurt!). So last night I decided to do a side kick through three boards, a round kick through two, and an elbow smash & palm heel (2 boards each). And I know, it can sound like a lot, right?

But I’ll let you in on something: just because we’re able to break boards at Tae Kwon Do, doesn’t mean we can. And at first I thought this was just one of my ideas, but then another black belt thought it also, “It’s your mind – it's what you think that is important,” not just our body’s ability. I mean, “Tae Kwon Do” means the art of the hands and the feet, but what controls the hands and the feet?

In other words, if we think we cannot break a board, even though it may be effortless to do so physically, then that will affect - and can make harder - the board break. But, if we tell ourselves that we can break a board, even though it may be difficult, we can usually break it with ease. That’s kind of amazing, when you think about it - how the mind & confidence hold the potential to make us so much stronger than we might be otherwise.

And this isn’t true just for Tae Kwon Do – it’s true for life. Sometimes we think we can’t do something, so we don’t - or we don’t accomplish something, because we can’t. It’s as simple as that, right? But it’s not. One of my favorite quotes (from “Batman Begins”) is “Training is nothing; will is everything.” And it’s true. Not that training is useless or meaningless – it’s not. It's just that training without being driven by the will is useless. We can be trained to write a poem, but if we still think we can't - then we probably won't. We can be trained for a job, but if we don't want to do it right, then we probably won't.

We can probably each make a list of what we think we can’t do, but we have to realize that’s what we think. And we have the power to change what we think. And, consequently, what we think is what we "know." We can all break through our boards if we know we can, even though it may hurt. We can do anything, as long as we believe we can - as long as we hold onto the thought that we can.

And so the art of the hands and feet is really the heart -
& not only what it believes inside of us, but also what we believe in it.

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