I have never done a grading examination that I have been happy with how I did. I always focused on the things that I knew I could, and should, have done better. And yet, somehow, I progressed through the grades, sometimes quickly, and sometimes taking longer than average. But progress is progress, however slow it may be. Even going backwards is progress if we approach it correctly.
After my last grading examination, the results were not given out immediately. In fact, they were not given out for some weeks. In the immediate aftermath of the examination, I felt I had not been successful. I had not done well enough in my eyes. I felt that I would have failed me, if I was on the grading panel.
It was in Japan, and there were a great number of senior instructors from around the world there also for training and maybe examinations. I was talking to a very senior European instructor at a restaurant one evening and he asked me, “What will you do if you did not pass the grading?”
My response was immediate. “It makes no difference”, I told him.
“Why not?”, he asked.
“Because,” I explained, “if I passed, it means I have to go back to the dojo and work harder as a higher grade. But if I failed, I have to go back to the dojo and work harder to do better next time. Either way, the result is the same: I have to go back to the dojo and work harder.”
My friend nodded and agreed with me. Pass or fail make no difference really.
Pass or fail. These words may be why we think they make a difference. Failure is seen as a negative thing. But it doesn’t have to be. Sometimes the hardest lessons, such as ‘failure’, can be the most valuable lessons we ever learn. How then can this be a negative thing?
Perhaps we should change the terminology, in order to change the mindset. Maybe ‘ready or not ready’ would be a little better. ‘Ready’ works because when we pass a grading it is not supposed to be a reward for what we have done in the past. Passing a grading is a challenge for what we have to do in the future. We are ready to train at the next level. So instead of failing the grading, we are simply not ready yet to move to the next level.
And maybe gradings should not be so important anyway. After all, either way we have to go back to the dojo and work harder.
Written by Sensei Seamus
Stamullen Martial Arts 