This post is the fifth entry in my Karate Life Lessons Series, a collection of posts that examines how lessons learned training in the martial arts translate into other areas of life as well. You can read the previous entry here.

What is karate training, exactly? One way to look at it is that, at its core, karate training is preparation to deal with a situation you hope will never actually materialize: one where you need to defend yourself against an attacker.

Preparation.

Ever hear the expression “When you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail” before? It holds true in a lot of different situations.

Preparation as an Action

How important is preparation to defend yourself? Pretty important, as far as your peace-of-mind goes. But obviously you can prepare in other areas of life too. You can prepare for a business presentation – I do it all the time, and for me it’s the key to speaking clearly and persuasively.

You can prepare for a test, for a wedding, for a race, a tournament, or any number of other things. Some folks prepare for the impending nuclear zombie apocalypse, complete with bug-out bag and everything. Whatever floats your boat.

What’s interesting about most of these things though, is that they’re all snapshots in time – one event, one instance. When it’s over, you breathe easy. After all, you’ve earned it, right? Sure, fair enough. And your preparation for that, what happens there?

Usually, it fades away, like footprints in the sand.

For some people though, preparation takes on a different meaning.

Preparation as a Mindset

In my mind, the thing that separates preparation as an action from preparation as a mindset is what you’re preparing for. If it’s a one-off event that has a clear end date – you know, like a test, race, presentation, exam, banquet, whatever – you’re preparing as an action. When the event is over, you stop preparing, and things go back to normal.

Not so when preparation is a mindset.

When you make preparation a mindset, you’re resolving to be prepared for something that may or may not happen in the future, and which has no specific date set to it. Basically, you’re making a commitment to be always ready, all the time.

Sound tiring, doesn’t it? The couch potato in me wants to go lie down and nap at the thought of it.

Hold the phone, though.

We do this naturally. Do you eat healthy? Exercise regularly? Dress your finest when you go out for even routine tasks?

Yeah, me neither.

BUT, let’s say you DO do one of those things. Those are all preparation as a mindset. The single guy or girl dresses up before going out because what if they meet that special someone on this trip. He eats healthy because what if not doing so kills him off before he can cross off his bucket list. She exercises regularly for the same reason. The driver who keeps a pocket knife in the car, just in case he needs to cut off a seatbelt? That’s preparation as a mindset.

It sounds stressful, but it’s really not. Try it for a bit, and before you know it, it’ll become as natural as breathing.

Preparation in karate can go two ways.

Since we started this post with karate, let’s end the same way. Preparation in karate can take two forms. One is to prepare for your next exam or grading. You “cram” just like I did in university right before an exam. You do extra pushups, practice your kata more often, and spar more than usual.

Then you get your belt, and everything goes back to normal.

Or it doesn’t. In my opinion, karate done right is preparation as a mindset. “Normal” becomes training hard every class. You train with the perspective that you hope not to use your skills ever, but that you may need to one day. In order for you to live up to that mindset, you need to be practicing your skills all the time. Use them or lose them.

If you train casually except for when you have a grading, there’s just no way you’ll be able to use those skills in a real situation. Your nerves will blind you to everything except what you’ve committed to muscle memory, which is nothing because you didn’t practice enough.

If you joined karate to get in shape or whatever, then that’s fine. But if you joined to learn how to defend yourself, then guess what: preparation as a mindset needs to be part of your mentality.

Wrapping it Up

I’m not saying that one form of preparation is better or more important than the other. They’re both important, no doubt. You can’t prepare for a wedding by always having a venue, photographer and band booked, for example (well you could, but who makes that kind of money?).

I just wanted to draw the distinction between the two, because there is a difference. When you’re thinking about how best to prepare for something, consider what it is you’re preparing for. Can you slap a date on it? Do you know what and when exactly it’s going to happen? If not, then you’d better get comfy with preparation as a mindset!