This is one part of the series, Get Started In The Martial Arts: A Beginner’s Guide.
Why do you want to learn martial arts? Do you want to improve your fitness or flexibility? Increase your focus, concentration skills, or spiritual awareness? Build self-confidence, or win in tournament competition? Make new friends? Strengthen your chances of surviving a random street assault?
Granted, these all sound like positive attributes. Given a list of the common goals and benefits of martial arts training, it is easy to embrace them all. And you can, and maybe you should…
But not at the expense of your own genuine motivations. So pause for a moment of reflection, and consider what you hope to achieve through your study of the martial arts. Because if you don’t know what you want, or haven’t yet acknowledged it, then it will be very difficult to choose an appropriate style, school or instructor.
Write a short list of goals for your practice. While this list can follow any format you choose, you may find it helpful to keep it SMART: list goals that are Specific, Meaningful, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
Your list doesn’t need to be comprehensive, and it doesn’t need to be perfect. Consider it a first draft of the road map for your martial arts journey.