Confidence or Cockiness?

In Bruce Lee's "Jeet Kune Do," he strove to create a type of martial art that would incorporate the others, not striving to be flashy at all, but instead simply be the most effective as possible against an opponent. In Lee's own philosophy, he told people that they should strive to be like water, in that water is flexible, ever-flowing, but can also be focused to make a formidable force.

Understanding confidence from this perspective is important. The urge to dominate other people is not what defines martial arts - if that were the case, then you've come to the wrong place. Instead, true confidence comes from discovering the power within yourself to create a true system of self-defense that simply works.

What is that system? True self-defense would mean never fighting; living a life of peace. And many martial arts stress that the warrior is meant to be at peace, and that war is what happens when people fail to achieve it.

Can you tell the difference between confidence and cockiness in this context? A confident martial artist will have no need to show off their fighting skills; a cocky martial artist, who is not confident but instead feels the need to prove something, is actually less effective because of his or her arrogance.

Embrace the functional ideas of Jeet Kune Do; strive for what works, not what impresses other people. If you're in martial arts to become cocky, you're in the wrong discipline. If, however, you want to learn martial arts in order to gain confidence, then you're on the right path. Find a martial art that aligns with your values of true self-confidence, not something that feeds your ego's need to dominate other people. You'll learn that self-confidence was the true path all along.

Photo Credits: Igor Bespamyatnov

Originally posted 2009-12-15 03:51:26.

From within.

Like it or not, true self-confidence and self-discipline does come "from within." But what specifically does this mean?

We can start by learning what it doesn't mean: confidence from within doesn't mean that you can lean on someone else's opinion of you in order to justify your assertiveness. In other words, you can't wait for someone to validate your opinion of yourself: you have to view yourself in high regards, independently of what other people think of you. At first, this might seem like you're simply lying to yourself, but with time you'll learn that you can view yourself highly.

This doesn't mean that you should use your high opinion of yourself to prop yourself up over other people. In fact, if you are truly getting your confidence "from within," this won't even be necessary, because you won't feel the need to prop yourself up on other people.

Because martial arts places such emphasis on self-defense, it is recognized that the best form of self-defense is learning how to avoid a fight completely. This means carrying yourself with quiet confidence that doesn't ruffle feathers by becoming arrogance. If self-confidence comes from within, it has a better chance of being a cleaner self-confidence that doesn't rub other people the wrong way.

As for self-discipline, you'll also have to learn that only you can get yourself to push out of your comfort zone. No martial artist can directly transfer his skills to another person; instead, you'll have to go through the same pains and dedication in order to win those skills. That means the self-discipline, at some point, will have to come from within you.

If you don't feel like self-confidence or self-discipline currently do make up a part of you, try to realize that this is simply a limiting identify you've created for yourself. If you dig deep, you'll be able to find inner strength that you didn't know you had. Just keep believing in your own strength and eventually you will find it.

Photo Credits: jackol

Originally posted 2009-08-07 05:40:45.