How and Why do I need to seek perfection in marital arts?

"Perfection is a direction, not an end goal." - Charles James, Isshinryu Practitioner

It has become a maxim of many martial arts practitioners, to achieve perfection. Perfection is an elusive bird frittering and fluttering around the skies, observable but hard to pen.

First, perfection is not a goal. A goal is something achievable or it would not be a goal. This is setting our sights to high thus always missing the target. It is an ideal that cannot be achieved simply because nature is nature and humans are human. Fallible.

Second, perfection should be a direction we all travel. It does not matter whether it is in martial arts or some other discipline. It is something to aim at and thus achieve in smaller increments that provide us a means to improve with out experiencing discouraging road blocks.

Third, it should no longer be the maxim in practice and training for martial arts. It should be an ideal that will promote continued growth for both the practitioner and the system. As instructors we should ask them to aim at perfection as the direction to travel on the path to better martial arts and not try to push them into a perfection that is just a personal view of any one individual which is unattainable.

Perfection should be the direction we travel to improve, grow, and allow greater contributions to self, tribe, and society. It is a belief system that allows us to stretch outside comfort to build a greater zone of comfort. It is that "arrow" that by effort connects with the target of "perfection" so that our path to which the arrow flies will be true, steady, and unwavering.