Today marks the beginning of the four-week countdown to my first kyu exam on March 9. I spent the afternoon training with friends, and the evening discussing training strategies, among other things, over dinner.
I’ve been training with my exam in mind for a good while, but the date has seemed safely distant, off in the future sometime. I haven’t been too concerned with things that aren’t smooth, or for that matter that I hardly know it all, because it felt like there was a lot of time left. No worries. I’ve been dealing with a funky nerve in my neck and arm, fighting various colds and coughs, and trying to get my first book finished and published. Just show up and train, there’s no rush… But now suddenly it doesn’t feel like I have much time at all! This is the time to snap out of that “whenever” thinking, and instead begin to bring a good bit more attention, precision, and fullness to everything. Now.
I have technique notes written down here and there, and a few scribbles about things I need to work on. I will feel more secure once I have them in one place, with a clear list of the things I really need help with.
But first, I promised I would finish another blog post, about counting to 31 in Japanese. So that’s next, and then getting all my notes together in one place. Ready? Acck! Go!