Day 17

Yesterday when I was watching TV I heard a quote  on a preview for Football Friday Night.  It was from Paul "Bear" Bryant and it said, "Its not the will to win that matters, everyone has that.  its the will to prepare to win that matters."  I thought about this tonight as I was running in the pouring rain.  The track was muddy.  The mud was sticking to my shoes.  I was already sore from my black belt class today.  I still had to study all the curriculum for the pretest and write an essay.  And I thought. . .this black belt stuff is a lot of hard work. 

When I was a white belt Master Burkart had us write our goal on the first board that we broke.  Just about every white belt had the same goal--to be a black belt.  That is will to win.  Everyone wants to reach the goal of being a black belt  Over the years I've seen a lot of those students quit.  Some made it to green belt.  Some made it higher but at some point most of them quit along the way.  There are about five of us that are still training and working hard.  That is the will to prepare to win.  The will to prepare to win is what makes a person go out and run a mile and half in the pouring rain.