Choices

Starting shortly after our birth we begin to make choices. We quickly progress from which toy to play with, to which clothes will I wear today, to should I watch TV or do my homework, should I take the highway or the back roads, should I stay with my current job or move on to a new one, should I get married or keep looking, are we ready to have children, do I picked up and move my family when my job wants me to relocate, do I seek to avoid the bully or do I stand my ground and refuse to be pushed around.

Choices can be simple or complex. All choices entail a give and take. Choosing one option leads towards certain results and away from others. Often making one choice will open up opportunities to make additional choices while at the same time taking away other opportunities.

Choices can also be categorized by how a decision was made. Was the decision made on impulse and gut instinct? Was it a quick decision based on years of experience? Was it a well thought out decision where the pros and cons of each option were carefully measured and the best option selected? Were you paralyzed by indecision and someone or something else made the decision for you? Did you consciously choose not to make a choice and thereby make the choice that was not presented?

The nature of our training teaches us to deal with the stress of making decisions. In sparring often times those decisions are split second decisions with measurable consequences. As we progress in our training we become more adept at making decisions, this being a prerequisite of leadership. A good leader not only makes decisions, they predominantly make the best decision given the options available.

A good leader makes impassive decisions. They remove emotion from the decisions they need to make. For emotion will often lead to rash decisions and rash decisions often lead to unexpected consequences. Even in the face of greatest adversity a true martial artist does not panic for panic means yielding control to others.

Look to the leaders that you know and see. Look at the leaders who are at the forefront of the public eye and look at the ones closest to you. Look at the people who need to make decisions, easy and tough, on a daily basis. Do they do so in a panic or are they calm and collected, do their decisions lead to benefits for just themselves or do others benefit more than the decision maker? Do they respond to unexpected information, good or bad, with great swings of emotion? Or are they calm and level headed?

Ultimately we all make choices every day. The question is what type of choices do you make? Do the results of your choices lead to more panicked choices or do others often seek you out for help in making their choices because they see your ability to make intelligent choices. In Tang Soo Do we develop ourselves to be the later. Choosing to study Tang Soo Do is a first step in choosing to become a good decision maker.

Tang Soo!

Master Scott C. Homschek 

Originally published at www.rvtsda.com September of 2003