Mind Training for Students Beginning Kung Fu- An Article By Joshua Haigh, WCMA Instructor
Below, I provide a couple of ways of making your own mind work to your advantage, in ways that you probably didn’t even realise were possible.
At the time of writing, I am studying A Beginners Guide to Irrational Behaviour by Dan Ariely, an online course. This has a couple of takeaways for us in the kung fu world.
- “The psychological literature challenges the notion of utility in neo-classical economics by providing a wide range of evidence that actions are not merely the consequence but also the cause of preferences.” What does this even mean? Well, let us imagine that you like both apples and oranges. Given a choice between them, you can’t make up your mind, so you just pick one at random. Let us say that you choose the orange. You like eating the orange and enjoy the experience. When you next come to the same choice, you are far more likely to choose the orange again. Why? Because our minds are adept at lying to us. You remember accurately that you chose the orange in the past. Clearly, with you being an intelligent and discerning person that means that the oranges are the superior option. If apples were the better option, you would have gone with the apple the first time. You are very unlikely to remember that your choice was essentially random. In this way, your action (choosing the orange) determines your preference (more oranges
please!).
And how does this relate to kung fu?
Well, once you are smart enough to come along to the first lesson, you have acted and expressed your preference for kung fu over falling asleep on the sofa. Your mind will remember this action, and creates a preference for doing so again.
For current students, the more often you act and come to kung fu, the more you will want to come again. Thus a virtual cycle is born! But this has a deadly flip side. If for any reason, you do not train as often as you normally do, you are less likely to continue. Beware! So if you miss a regular training night, try your utmost to catch up on another day.
- Default options affect us profoundly. A psychological study that looked at the levels of the public being organ donors in different countries demonstrates this very well. In some countries, you are by default an organ donor, and in others you are by default not an organ donor. Naturally you can change your status if you wish, but to do so, you need to fill in a form. This takes effort, and requires thinking about your own death. As this is unpleasant, most people stick to the default option, whether that’s being a donor or not. And this does make a huge difference. In countries where you are by default a donor, around 99% of the population are donors. In countries where you are by default not a donor, around 10% of the population are donors. The default options rules our lives, whether we realise it or not.
So how does this relate to kung fu?
I’m so glad you asked!
If you want to be good at kung fu, this requires regular, frequent practice. Making kung fu the default option will help immensely.
If you make kung fu the default option, it simply becomes something that you do, and doesn’t take any mental effort on your part. If you train on Tuesdays, Tuesday must become kung fu night. It’s just what you do on Tuesdays. To not do kung fu on Tuesday should take an effort, a compelling reason not to.
When most of us start training, the default option is sitting on the sofa, falling asleep in front of the telly. And of course, this does have its appeal – but it’s not what I do on Tuesdays. That’s what I do on Wednesdays!
To summarise,
- If you are thinking you would like to learn kung fu, the best way to make this a reality is to come along to a lesson. Once you have done one lesson, you are much more likely to continue. Naturally, the quality of the instruction and the friendly nature of the other students will help!
- If you really want to get good at kung fu, make it your default option.
- If you miss a regular training session, try your best to catch up at another session.
Joshua Haigh
Instructor WCMA