Why are there so many martial artists, but so few successful ones?
Firstly, you must clarify what you consider success to be. Just as a businessman's success is earning a lot of money, a scholar's success is establishing a school of thought. We, as martial artists, aspire to achieve a good level of combat proficiency. Of course, you can also say that your purpose in practicing martial arts is to strengthen your body and mind or cultivate self-discipline. But that's merely a supplementary aspect of martial arts training.
Once we've clarified the purpose of martial arts, we must find the ways and methods to achieve it. However, despite having a clear objective, attaining success is undoubtedly a challenging endeavor. This isn't to say that achieving the goal is difficult; it's the many detours that exist in the pursuit of that goal that pose the problem. We find it difficult to determine which of these paths can directly lead to the goal, which might take a roundabout route, and which might even deviate from the target.
In the past, in all martial arts schools, this situation existed: as soon as you entered, you would see a pervasive mist, and before your feet, many paths would begin. No one would point you in the correct direction; you could only explore forward on your own. If you're lucky, you'll take the right path and achieve success, and when you look back, you'll find that the path to success was so direct! If you're unlucky, you'll take one or several detours and finally find the target of success. But most people are extremely unlucky, taking many detours and wandering down wrong paths, suffering and exhausting themselves while far away from the goal, wasting a lot of effort and training, ultimately either giving up or achieving nothing.
In reality, the path to success is very direct, and the goal of success is not far off. As long as someone with insight points you in the right direction, you will quickly feel the joy and pride of success. Let's make this clear: martial artists, once they understand the core and fundamental training methods that make up combat proficiency, they will quickly achieve mastery. We say that the core and fundamental training methods that constitute martial arts combat proficiency are the total power form of the martial art, which is what is known as 'internal power', rather than specific techniques or forms, or the number of sets or movements. All of our training should revolve around this central power form, and we must not deviate from it. This will undoubtedly lead us to our goal and success quickly. Otherwise, you might learn every technique, movement, form, and style, even the techniques and 'qi' (energy) used, but you will still be far from the path of martial arts, and success will always be unattainable.
