Dojo-cho’s Column 6 — Why I Put On My Dogi Again Today

People who join the dojo for the first time usually make a promise like this: “I can’t come every day, but I’ll be sure to come three times a week.” For the first few days after joining, they are more enthusiastic than anyone, as if they were about to receive a black belt. But once they start to miss a session or two, they begin making reasons why they cannot come. In more than twenty years of keeping the dojo, the reasons I have heard fall into four main kinds.

First, “I’m too busy.” You leave for work early in the morning and come home late in the evening, and when you get home you have to play with the children and see people too. That is true. But there is no one in the world who is not busy. One of our members who tied on a black belt after five years was a homemaker who, from dawn, saw the family off to work and school and caught up on the housework. A member now in their twelfth year says they simply put their dojo time into their daily schedule. If you try to exercise in your spare time, there will never be any spare time. If you set a day, even once a week, and go as if it were work, it becomes much easier.

Second, “I’m still healthy.” Exercise is something you do while you are healthy. Even one cold makes your fitness drop quickly, and getting it back takes longer than you think. Once your body has declined, you have no strength left even to exercise. Walk while you can walk, and roll while you can roll.

Third, “At my age…” As I said in the previous chapter’s column, it is never too late to start aikido. Your body may be stiffer than when you were young, but because you are older, your understanding is quicker and your insight deeper.

Fourth, “I have no talent for it.” Newcomers envy the supple movements of the senior students. But they rarely see the years those seniors have put in. The seniors and I were all a mess at first. Every day we were told, “Relax,” and we often sank into wondering why we could not do it. No one knows whether they have talent or not, so there is no reason to judge yourself in advance. Just as with learning to speak, technique becomes part of you as you repeat it endlessly.

In truth, these excuses come to me as well. I’m busy today, so I’ll go tomorrow; I’ll go once work eases off. Even I, who have worn a dogi for more than thirty years, have days when a resolution is hard to keep for more than three days. That is why I do not look down on a resolution that lasts only three days. If you make up your mind again every three days, that builds into a habit, and habits come together to make a way of life.

In this chapter I have talked at length about examination standards and training plans, but in the end what makes your kyu and dan is the days you steadily came to the dojo. Today, too, I put on my dogi to quiet these four excuses. For you, too, a three-day resolution is enough. Just make up your mind again three days later.