Why Desk Jobs Don’t Mean You Can’t Be a Warrior
It's Not About Your Job Title, It's About How You Live Your Life
So many of you Chicago area have desk jobs. Analysts, designers, marketers, engineers, and more. That doesn’t mean you aren’t warriors in your own way. Being a warrior isn’t just for people who carry a firearm for a living. Being a warrior is how you live your life.
What it means to be a warrior
That means taking care of yourself and your loved ones. Taking care of your community. Digging in and standing tall when you are scared. It’s doing the hard thing sometimes. It’s speaking the truth rather than holding back. It’s going hard. It’s in your attitude of getting back in the game when you make a mistake. It doesn’t mean your superior. It’s coming at whatever it is with your full self. It means making time for regular training.
Making Time to Train
A warrior trains. Even training 15 minutes a day adds up. The more times you practice the better you get. Physical movement and sweating gets the blood flowing so you can let go of stress, especially if you’ve been sitting all day. Training helps your physical fitness and improves mental focus. A good martial arts practice translates beautifully to office life. It transforms your attitude. Have you ever noticed that you’re able to work through things on the mat that have been in your way at work? I remember practicing one day years ago and my instructor told me I was sticking my butt out and all I could think was “Man! I’ve been doing that all week at work, too!”
People Skills
Nowadays a warrior has to know how to work with people. In martial arts training that gets practiced by building trust and respect with your training partners. I’ll tell you a secret - finding ways to make them shine will make you shine. Interpersonal skills come from communicating and learning from the encounters. Being able to communicate so you don’t hurt each other help you build more intensity with your movements. Nowadays being a warrior is also leadership. That doesn’t mean being the one in charge but leading by example. That is part of why we have you lead the 12 Basics in class.
Remember, being a warrior is an attitude. It’s how you live your life. It’s not that you have to even consider yourself one. It’s how you approach your day and and deal with what you are faced with. It’s how you are in the world. It’s something that is cultivated and practiced. It can be done from anywhere. Whether from in the dojo, the garden, or at your desk, you are a warrior when you need to be.
