Warriors and Civilians

As a Martial Artist I have spent a great deal of time over the last 6+ years training. In the prior 4 years I was a Marine and I spent all of that time training. It has only just occurred to me lately to study training. The more I learn about training the more I meet people, either in person or on the net, who fit what I would call the Warrior mindset.

In the Marine Corps, the warrior mind set was a given. I was an infantry man for 4 years and my job was combat. Even though I never saw combat it was my life. We trained daily to fight, shoot and win. It was what we did.

During that period of time I never stopped to consider when, where, how or even Why? It just was. Later after the Corps was behind me the lessons in training were a part of me and I didn't stop to think about them.

I carried that made of thinking in to civilian life and have lived by an undefined code since.

I would like to say that the Warrior Code is one of morality and justice, but it isn't always. That thought is subjective at best and at worse can be used to justify many horrors on the battlefield (just look at the crusades.)

I would like to say that a Warrior will be the Biggest,Strongest, hardest, and best at all things Martial. But often times the truth is evident when you look at modern Martial Arts that all students aren't built the same and some of the most Warrior-like are the 40 something adults who may never run more than a mile or two.

So what is a Warrior? If they aren't the best and truest all the time how do we define what we all hold up as the pinnacle of our race?
I mean we all agree that the Armed Forces are hero's, WHY?
We all agree that Black Belt martial artist have earned respect, WHY?
We all agree that Master Instructors deserve our respect and admiration, WHY?

So what is a Warrior?

In my opinion a Warrior is possessed of two qualities that are found in him in such great quantities that they override every aspect of his life.
These qualities are discipline and determination.

These qualities have marked Warriors from every generation. The Samurai, were so disciplined that they excelled at art with brush as well as sword. The famed Miyamoto Musashi was a renowned artist and some of his sketches are amazing in there clarity especially if you know that he did them in ink, with a brush, on rice paper. There was no room for error, no erasers, no painting over mistakes as with some mediums of art, each stroke of the brush had purpose and could not be taken back. The same with his swordsmanship, unequalled in his day, undefeated by any foe save old age and illness. He lived his life for his Martial Arts.

The Spartans of Greece also share these qualities, so determined to be the best warriors in the land that they gave over their young men at the age of 7 to begin the most brutal 11 year training in history. Many did not survive, and this did not sway them. They continued to train, fight and win. It was a common spartan saying Wife to Husband or Mother to son "return with your shield or on it." so determined were they that death was the only way to leave the battlefield with out victory. The determination of the Spartans is legendary, we all have herd by now of the 300 and the gates of Thermopylae, there with a few thousand other free Greek men the Spartans held off the entire Persian Army and prevented a major invasion of Greece.

How then do we join the ranks of men and women like this?
A Warrior is someone who wakes up every day devoting it to an ideal that is more important than the pleasantness of life. She is a person who forgoes a little sugar in order to reach a goal. He is someone who presses himself to life more than the last time. They are people who can put off today something in exchange for a greater goal tomorrow.

Warriors are disciplined in every day, every moment and try to achieve their best in all that they do. They create workout plans that daunt others and stick to their plan. They are determined to beat their bodies in to submission, they achieve their goal at all costs.

By this definition others who are not often thought of in the same group as those above are also warriors. The single mother barely getting by who takes a second job to make ends meet. The down and out family living in a ca rather than splitting their family. The Marathon runner who breaks his foot and continues. The college student who works 2 jobs and takes on loans to be a doctor. The parents of the Soldier who never stop loving, praying and hoping to see there baby again.

Warriors have had many ethos that they follow, some just and some less so. Your path is for you to decide.. however if you wish to be a warrior you can't commit half way. You are either in all the way or out. It is a daily re-commitment to yourself and your path. It is a battle that rages within you. It is overcoming yourself in order to progress.

Warriors are looked up to not because of amazing feats, but because of daily small ones.