Fear of being Wrong

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

Systemic to many things but from my personal perspective and perception it is really up there in the karate and martial arts disciplines. Once a person don’s a black belt and/or takes on the title of “Sensei” they seem to feel strongly, believe wholeheartedly and apply vigorously the concept and trait that they are not wrong, never wrong and will not change even when proven wrong - is there something wrong with this?

If you feel like you can’t allow yourself to be wrong, especially in front of the dojo and the practitioners who are following your lead then I suggest that you are suffering from the principle of human’s fear of being wrong. We seem to think and feel that to admit we are wrong or that we don’t know something as bad and I suggest that deep down in our lizard brain that it smacks of perception of death or grave harm therefore triggering our monkey brains into believing, avoiding and acting as if we could not possibly be wrong, i.e., “We are black belts, we are Sensei, We are the experts!”

We seem to have forgotten that humans, our entire species, are not infallible, we make mistakes and often what we know or think we know is not exactly accurate or it is just plain incorrect. Yet, we persist under the assumption that to admit to fallibility we lessen ourselves, lose status in the tribe and subject ourselves to possibly being wrong about other stuff resulting in our being forced to face our self-image and belief system and then - CHANGE, Change IT and CHANGE our SELF-IMAGE, OH My!

In the forty some odd years in karate/martial arts I have learned one thing, there is so much I don’t know, so much I don’t know I don’t know and so much crap that must be “taken out to the trash” regarding not just karate or martial disciplines but also about life itself. What the f%$#, rover, can we all just get over it all?

The great thing about humans is that we are human and fallible and able to do amazing things but change seems a bit harder than most things. There is so much that should, needs and warrants changing especially in the disciplines of karate and martial arts because of the potential dangers involved not just in practice but especially when it is used for self-defense (a misnomer term if there ever was one). 

If you can’t, don’t or won’t take anything else away from this article, take this with you, “Fear is a key nature-oriented lizard brain like instinct that protects us from the dangers of life, it is about survival and it means we will fear those things that trigger that tape, click-n-whirr, where fear takes us to the monkey dance!”

Note: the same as the fear of losing, grave harm and dying!

Bibliography (Click the link)

“In order for any life to matter, we all have to matter.” - Marcus Luttrell, Navy Seal (ret)