LOTTERY

WEEK OF 11/10/25

 

We tend to think of training as a linear process.  We train for an hour, we get an hour better.  We train for a week, we get a week better.  We train a year, we get a year better.  And so on.While this might actually be true, on average, for longer timelines, in the moments in between it’s nothing like that at all. 

In fact, the upward trajectory of progress resembles the erratic ebbs and flows of the stock market more so than a staircase, which reliably advances in integral steps.  And as such we can’t put too much stock on the daily movement of how we perform (or, more deeply, how we think about how we perform – but that’s a topic for another time).

Truly, in the daily grind, progress feels more like playing the lottery.  You spend your time and energy on tickets that fail to hit, until one day – boom – you find yourself holding the winning numbers.

Here’s the thing: you don’t get to play the lottery if you don’t show up.

I’ve been “showing up” for over two decades.  I’m still lacking certain skills that I’ve been eyeing for a long, long time.  I work at them.  I study them.  But.. something’s always missing.  And then one day I hit the jackpot and it all comes together.

Having trained for so long, the seemingly random timing of progress doesn’t phase me too much.  While I can’t exactly target when I will hit the jackpot, I know that I inevitably will if I just show up enough.  I’m not demoralized when the winning numbers don’t match up with what I have on my ticket that day.  I know that my day will come, I just need to be present for it or it’ll pass me over.

I’m writing this specifically because I hit another jackpot this week.  Something shifted into place, a skill that’s been eluding me for the past couple of years.  Something that’s been gnawing at me and been a huge source of frustration.  And then, boom, it clicked.  It was so obvious and right in front of my face the entire time, but I needed to put myself in the right position so as to perceive it clearly.

And it won’t be the last time, either.  I just plan on continuing to show up, continuing to be patient, and continuing to stay positive because I know that, over time, everything falls into place.

Not many things in life have guaranteed happy endings, but I’d like to think that martial arts, by and large, is something you can actually bet on.