Tips On Motivation

I get lots of people coming to this site looking for tips on motivation. Most of the stuff I’ve written is about motivation in general, so I thought I’d write about my experiences with motivation in Wing Chun specifically.

In addition to all the popular methods of improving motivation in general (like eating healthily, getting enough rest, etc), there are some specific techniques that I’ve found to be useful in generating motivation in my Wing Chun training. Most of us will go through periods of demotivation where we feel disinterested or apathetic when it comes to training. I know I have. It does get easier though, and eventually you will just train whether you feel motivated or not. In fact, the feeling of motivation/demotivation isn’t something you’ll be aware of: you’ll just “do”.

It’s a case of making the decision and then following it through, whether you like it or not.  If you train long enough, you’ll learn to just ignore the internal voice telling you not to train tonight. Train a little longer and that voice will dwindle away to nothing and you’ll find that training is just as much a part of your life as breathing. While you’re still on your journey to reach that point, you might find the following motivation tips useful. And remember: feeling demotivated occasionally is natural – it’s not a sign that you should give up.

Wing Chun Motivation Tips

1. Assign yourself missions/mini projects. Set goals to push yourself – it makes training more interesting. Here are some examples of mini projects that have helped me:
   • do Siu Lim Tau every day – without fail – for 2 weeks
   • take the first part of Tsum Kiu (leading up to and including the 3 palm strikes) and practise that 10 times every day for a month
   • do 30 bong saus on the first day and increase the number by 10 every day for a month. This means left bong sau – turn to the left – right bong sau – repeat. That is: bong sau, turn, bong sau, turn etc.
2. Find role models and study them. This can be role models in any area you want to improve (stretching, trapping, strength). I like watching Paul Vunak’s trapping. Don’t restrict yourself to “big name” role models. What about the senior members in your class, how are they training?
3. Watch/listen to inspirational material. Ever heard of Zig Ziglar? The audio CD I linked to is one that I’ve listened to many a time on my drive to work.
4. Find someone in your class who is around your level and aspire to become better than them. I know that ideally you should just strive to be “the best you can be”, but sometimes competing with yourself just doesn’t cut the mustard. If that’s true for you, find a (friendly) rival.
5. Pick one thing, and try to perfect it over a period of time. For example, for one week I’m focusing on isolating my shoulder when I perform bong saus and tan saus. But it’s up to you what you pick, and how long you devote to this special “focus time”. I know I won’t make big progress in isolating my shoulder movement when changing from tan sau to bong sau in just one week, but the knowledge that I’m spending high quality time on something so important (and usually neglected) makes me feel good, if nothing else. Spending extra time on leg training over the period of one month will yield gains that are more tangible, though. Being able to feel that you’re progressing and see real improvementsis a great way to become even more motivated.
6. Change your daily routine. If when you get home after work you eat your evening meal and then surf the internet, do Siu Lim Tau when you get home instead. OK, some elements of your daily routine are crucial and can’t be changed – like work – so there are some restrictions that prevent you shaking up your routine too much!
7. Find a partner to practise with outside of class. As well as getting extra practise time, you also get a different quality of practice, as you are able to spend more time focusing on certain things, and you can experiment more.
8. Read motivational stories about “successful” martial artists. Bruce Lee’s biography describes how driven he was and is a good antidote to the “I can’t be bothered this week” moments.
9. Immerse yourself a little deeper into Wing Chun. Read about its history and learn about influential proponents of the art (provided that you don’t get sucked into harmful politics). If your sifu or sigong has written books or made videos on the subject, buy them and devour them.
10. Stop listening to your negative internal voice. What a cliché! However, cliché or not, I have had arguments with myself in my head where I’m battling with myself over the decision to go to class tonight or not. Sometimes the lazy (or is it fearful…?) side wins and I don’t go, and sometimes it’s the positive and determined side that wins. Fed up with this internal struggle, I developed a method for banishing it from my head entirely. I call it the “shut up, I don’t want to talk about it” method. It’s easy to use: you simply make the decision to go to class and then every time that stupid nagging voice pipes up and tries to persuade you not to go you tell it to “shut the **** up, the decision has already been made”. You just avoid thinking about it. How can you get dissuaded from going to class if you don’t listen to the argument? Note to self: keep internal dialogue internal. Especially if your mind wanders during a meeting.
11. Have a smart sifu. If your sifu is the kind of person who gives you responsibilities that encourage you to train more, lucky you. I’m one of the lucky ones. My sifu gets the more experienced class members to lead the class during Siu Lim Tau and also gets them to adopt a minor teaching role themselves to help beginners. If you don’t train enough, you’re going to look like crap doing your Siu Lim Tau in front of the class. Also, when a more junior member asks you how to use a gaan sau and you look blankly at them (what’s a gaan sau…?) because you don’t know, you’re going to feel a right berk. Sifu knows this and knows that all weaknesses are spotlighted under the harsh scrutiny of the class. Or at least it feels that way. Increased responsibility encourages more training, if only to avoid the embarrassment of not being worthy of it!
12. Along the same lines as the above – seek out situations that force you to train more. If you have enough experience, become a sifu. You’ll then have a lot to live up to. Knowing that you are responsible for a group of students’ development is a powerful motivator! Also, discerning students don’t hang around bad teachers, so you’d better shape up.
13. Identify obstacles and remove them. Sometimes a lack of motivation originates from problems you experience when you train, so have a closer look at what’s really going on. If you find it hard to balance on one leg when you’re doing leg training, then maybe wearing different trainers would help. If your sifu asks questions in class to test you, and you feel dumb because you don’t know the answers, then do some homework. If you get stressed out because your chi sau becomes too competitive, then step back and ask yourself why you need to win all the time. Insead of tensing up and being determined to “come out on top”, remain relaxed throughout your chi sau and expect to get hit. Sometimes it’s better to get hit more than your partner in chi sau, especially if you’re working on things like relaxation and technique. If you have to eat your evening meal after your late Wing Chun class and you end up eating immediately before going to bed, you might suffer from indigestion/bad sleeping patterns and this might deter you from going to that class. Consider eating a lighter meal before bed (pure veg works for me) or 2 light meals, one before and one after class. Another obstacle to enjoying a pleasant training session is my damn trainers’ insistence on gripping the floor like superglue when I do Tsum Kiu. This grip is fine if you’re doing something static like Siu Lim Tau, but is a complete nightmare when doing Juen Ma (turning – think Tsum Kiu). The answer? A beat up pair of 12 year old squash trainers that allow just enough slide for Juen Ma.

Most people feel demotivated at times when it comes to training. The students who improve the most are the ones who accept this feeling and just get on with it anyway.

Part of the reason for me starting this site was to bolster my enthusiasm for Wing Chun. I used to suffer a lack of motivation to go to class. Once I got there, I would have a ball – the problem was in getting myself to leave the house. It’s not because I’m lazy: quite the contrary. I probably have far too many interests and they are all vying for my time. It wasn’t uncommon for me to have arguments in my head on my drive home from work, one side putting forward the pros and the other side putting forward the cons of going to class that night.

The Wing Chun Demons In My Head

Check out the schizo banter in my head:

• “My Wing Chun is improving, I should ride the wave and go to class and get even better”
• “My Wing Chun is improving, so it’s not that important if I miss tonight’s class”
• “I went on Saturday, so I don’t need to go tonight (Monday)”
• “The house is a mess, I really need to clean it – and it has to be tonight”
• “I’m knackered after a gruelling weekend of booze, so I’ll stay in tonight”
• “I’m really motivated about making origami paper ducks so I should stay in and make the most of that motivation”

Sadly, the demons in my head were mostly on the side of missing Wing Chun classes. This is why I had to use different methods to boost my Wing Chun motivation.

Top Tips To Improve Wing Chun Motivation

The following tips are not specific to Wing Chun, but are universal. You can apply them to other areas of your life.

• Do more. Yes, I know that sounds odd, but the more I do, the more I like it. I’m sure you will be the same. Also, the better you get, the more encouraged you will feel.
• Look back and see the progress you’ve made. Credit where credit’s due, you’ve made progress. You’re further down the path than you were even mere months ago.
• Watch inspiring videos, with talented practitioners in them. Youtube hosts a smorgasbord of Wing Chun idiots – but there are also some geniuses too. Watch them and feel inspired.
• Project forward and imagine how good you will be in 2 years time. In 5 years time. If your future self could travel back in time, your present self would get its ass kicked big style. It might get dirty. Better your future bad ass self stay the hell where it is because it’s so damn dangerous.
• Be healthier. Drink less alcohol (I don’t mean become a monk), eat better foods, get enough sleep, do regular exercise. All these things conspire to make you feel better and the better you feel, the more you will want to engage with the world.
• Find other interests that complement your Wing Chun habit. For example, this website serves that purpose for me – and helps keep me interested. Interestingly, my classes often provide food for thought on this blog.
• Make contact with other people who have similar interests. I’ve emailed a couple of Wing Chun martial artists on youtube already. I’m not saying you should go and stalk these people too, but other ideas are to get together with classmates and practise outside of class. Our club has a regular class meal every month and its good to maintain regular contact with other members of our kung fu family.
• Vary your practice. I, for one, probably don’t change my routine as often as I should. There are so many things to practise; one model I might follow is to focus on just a few techniques for maybe a week and then choose different techniques for next week. This way my routine doesn’t become stale. Also, think about different ways to employ the same technique i.e. different applications. For example, take footwork.  I can practise the dummy form I know, but I can also improvise moving around a fictitious opponent and really concentrate on my steps. As a further variation I can then introduce some hand movements (gaan sau, kwan sau etc) to spice it up. Variety being the key not just to maintain interest, but to improve skill too.
• Make use of any friendly (or not so friendly!) rivalry that exists between you and your partner. For example there are two colleagues that come to my mind. One uses too much strength, and is sometimes quite reckless with his flailing fists. I use this  to spur me on to become better so that I can withstand and deflect his brute force attacks more subtley – in the Wing Chun way. So he motivates me to train more and work harder. The other guy has been learning Wing Chun for only a year but he has improved (and still improves) tremendously. I like this guy and think he has a good attitude. He really gives me a run for my money. I don’t mind as much if he gets the better of me, because he is using good technique and not brute force. Nevertheless, I still use the experience to motivate me to improve my skill. He is improving so fast that I really have to train regularly and be on my toes.
• Go to seminars/workshops and use them to spur you on. You don’t want to show yourself up in front of all those people you don’t know, do you? Get training!
• Prepare. You can do this on two levels:

1. You can prepare what you will train the day before you actually train. This means that you don’t run out of stuff to do halfway through. A few times I’ve been scratching my head thinking about what I should do next and instead of continuing, I’ve just left it at that and stopped training that day. Don’t give yourself time to think. Plan every minute of your training. Now I arrive at the gym and I know I’m going to spend 15 minutes on a warm up, 15 minutes doing Tsum Kiu, 20 minutes doing Siu Lim Tau and then 25 minutes on turning exercises.
2. The other level involves planning your training that week. Plan to go to class Monday and Wednesday and also to train one hour before work Monday to Friday. If you do this, you won’t give yourself the chance to choose the Inaction Due To Uncertainty option.

Motivational Success

The above tips have really worked for me, so I hope they’ll be of use to you. The thing I’ve done that has helped me most is restructure my training timetable. I used to squeeze 15 minutes in before work started, and think that that was enough. Now, I schedule in an hour before work and stick to it religiously. Because it’s consistent and substantial practice, I can actually feel myself improving and that makes me feel like I want to do more.

I’ve also started chi sauing with people outside of class and that helps with the training you can’t practise on your own.

Another big motivator is the upcoming Wing Chun residential. I don’t want to get destroyed by the daily 90 minute siu lim taus that are on the cards, so I’m putting the hours in now.

Let me know if you use different ways to motivate yourself and I’ll steal your ideas, publish them here and take the credit