Lessons From My Black Belt Exam For Steemit

in #life6 years ago

It was a big day for me, I was heading into the exam hall for my 2nd Dan Black Belt in Taekwondo. My coach was a national coach in Taekwondo and he hinted that he had a surprise for me. Surprise as I have realized, does not always mean something positive.

After completing a set of required moves and a few plank-breaking, I was asked to spar with two other black belt holders. The first one was easy and I got through without any issue. Then came the second guy. He was tall, lean and muscular. Peter, as we shall call him, looked.. normal, but looks can be deceiving. My coach called me over for a short talk. I assumed he was going to give me some form of motivational speech. Instead, he pointed to Peter and said that he was the surprise.

Peter, it turns out was a three time National gold medalist in Taekwondo. He had represented the country for international tournaments. He specialized in knock-outs, being tall and lean means that you can land a chopping kick or a reverse kick to the head. Do it right and its lights out for your opponent. My coach then called Peter to meet me and after the usual pleasantries, Peter was assigned to be my second opponent.

Before the final test started my coach said four words that made me worry just a little bit more.

Don't Kick His Head

As I was about to protest, the bell rung. Peter flew into the air and started landing double turning kicks to my left and right. As I tried to land a side kick, he dodged back. I was too slow and the kicks continued. A few minutes felt like hours. When the final bell rung, he probably scored points in the double digits while I could only land punches. In Taekwondo, punches do not carry any points. However, true to my coach's request, he landed no kicks to my head. I was thankful, but my arms were bruised and swollen from blocking all those kicks. I was literally a punching bag for him.


The bruises were not visible but the cuts were

I passed the test and as my coach handed me my 2nd stripe on my black belt. He started his motivational speech. Since he was in charge of the test, he could assign me any opponent. He could assign me someone weak or incompetent. He could also do away with the sparring component if he deemed me fit. However, the reason why I was assigned Peter was because he wanted me to earn my 2nd Dan. He wanted me to work for it, to strive for it.

On Steemit...

As many of my students and fellow community members have started joining Steemit, I think one very discouraging thing to see is the very low payout that a minnow may receive for quite some time. It feels like you are fighting a Peter, scoring no points by just landing punches while others score big payouts. This is how striving is like. Yes, it may be a few weeks, perhaps a few months of producing content that no one appreciates.

However, have faith that your time will come. It may be an upvote from @ocd, @curie or some other whale. That day will come. As you strive, hustle and continue to make time creating content on Steemit, you tend to get better at what you are doing. Remember how difficult it was creating that first post? Upon striving, that preparation time decreases, things get easier and you would have already a steady group of followers that are growing.


Image source

As you make time to engage, read and create on Steemit, know that you are in training. It is all a learning process that will eventually pay (literally).

Conclusion

I appreciate my coach for sending his best to beat me up. I learnt that success tastes the best if you have to put in the work for it. Steemit has gotten easier for me after four months, but there is still an element of strive in it. It still takes effort and it still takes time. I am still nonetheless learning to do better each day.

As a teacher, I apply the lesson to my students. Work hard, strive to do your best and success will come. As a coach, I carry on my coach's way of teaching. I place my students through the grind so that they appreciate hard work. As a Steemian to another who may have found it hard to do well on Steemit, strive, grind and never give up. Minutes may seem like hours, days may seem like weeks, but you never know, success may just be around the corner.

Steem on and Strive on!


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i am realy realy sorry pleazse Iftey apologize.IWill never do it again sorry i am really really sorry
Take back your backdrop

You say you are sorry and yet you went about downvoting others (@superoo7) ? What are you trying to do?

Great story! Very motivating, since I have had practiced Taekwondo for 3 years. It was 20 years ago. Couldn't imagine until now it was so many years ago. I reached Blue Belt.) Compared to your second Dan it's not an achivement at all, but for me those 3 years of practice in my teenage period meant a lot, as these years strengthened my will and my spirit. Thank you for this post and comparison of Taekwondo with Steemit, I never thought about it in this way, but for me it really makes sense what you said here.

Thanks for stopping by, I too stopped at blue when I was in high school but was lucky to have got into it again at uni, never too late to continue!

As a follower of @followforupvotes this post has been randomly selected and upvoted! Enjoy your upvote and have a great day!

I like your post, if there is time to visit my account, because I am still a beginner.

Congratulations! This post has been chosen as one of the daily Whistle Stops for The STEEM Engine!

You can see your post's place along the track here: The Daily Whistle Stops, Issue # 46 (2/15/18)

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Congrats on your 2nd Dan Black Belt! You've really earned it... Peter, Peter... He didn't make it easy for you... But you did it!
Love the way you relate it with the Steemit Journey... Yes, the starting point is really discouraging... After giving it all out from our heart writing and the payout is just a few cents. But along the way, when we fight our Peter(s)... Without giving in and giving up... We will eventually receive our very own black belt too! 💗💕💖❤️

Yeah, we gotta hustle on yo, before we know it we will all be whales! Then we can get our kids to sing baby whale whale whale whale whale whale...hahaha

hahaha... with our very own @zord189 leading all the children singing that... hahaha

Very nice post!! I like the way you write all your experience and then link it with every steemians experience. 老师就是不一样! Congratulation to you. Oh yea, check out my newest post ^^ some fun thing to do for a weekend.

The ATV one? love the post, I've done it too, a friend of mine runs one of the place in kiulu.

I think you learned more from fighting Peter than you would from fighting someone on your level or weaker. When you have to fight a three time champion, it's easy to get scared and back down, but you stood your ground, did your best and earned every fiber of that stripe. I like how you used this situation as a metaphor for Steemit - it's really easy to get disheartened in the beginning when you see how much the big boys earn. It was very motivational, this minnow is very grateful for your story :)

Thank you, glad that this helps.. Ultimately think all of us gotta strive to get to the top especially if we didn' get into steemit as early. Thanks for stopping by!

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