Achieving mastery in martial arts is not about fitness, talent,  intellect or technical achievement. It’s not about footwork, balance, power, speed, youth, maturity or reflexes. It’s about three things:

1. Heart.
2. Heart.
3. Heart.

It’s all heart. If you have the heart of a master, the heart of a champion, the heart of a fighter, then everything else will follow. You’ll put in the time, take notes, and practice relentlessly.

Other people see the end result only, and they say, “You’re talented. You’re gifted.”

What they don’t see is all the heart that you poured into it over the years. They don’t see the sacrifices you made, the times you trained when you were weary and had piles of work waiting at home, the social occasions you missed, the shoes you wore until they were falling apart because you were saving money for a seminar, the way you carried your notes in your pocket every day and looked at them when you waited in line at the grocery store or stopped at a red light in the car.

Do you have the heart?

– Wael Abdelgawad

(Photo: Ronda Rousey, Olympics judo champion and UFC fighting champion).