"Your thoughts create reality" - Determination comes from within you!

"Your thoughts create reality"
Six Silent Master Images ("From Seven Steps to Inner Power" by Dr Tae Yun Kim)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=19TpT3K_Fy4
(see at 4:04 min into it)...

The two seconds or so at 4:04min into this video of my Jung SuWon Black Belt testing, might seem like just one break of many - after all, the other candidates break lots of bricks, and even bottles, in the video.

But those two seconds made a huge impact on me.

You see, that girl is me, and a couple years before, when I was testing for Red Belt, Great Grandmaster Dr Tae Yun Kim gave me the opportunity, during testing, to face breaking three bricks with ax kick.

I didn't break 3 bricks that night. I probably broke 30+ bricks--- first the top one of the stack of 3, then the top two, then the top one again, then 2, then none, then 1, then none, then 2, etc. At one point I somehow broke the middle brick in the stack of 3 while the top and bottom ones (all new bricks) remained untouched... I'd never seen that before! But - no matter how often I struck that stack of 3 bricks, that night during Red Belt testing I just couldn't gather together the extra bit of determination or focus needed to break a stack of three bricks in one shot.

For me, from that point to my black belt testing a couple years later, the thought of me breaking three bricks in with one Ax kick was about as believable as snow falling in the Sahara dessert. No way I could do that. It just wasn't going to happen.

It's hard to summarize Black Belt testing in words. It was an awesome mix of emotions (joy, fear, stress, happiness, etc) and techniques (forms, sparring tied to chairs, tied to poles, blindfolded...) but when, at Belt Ceremony, Great Grandmaster had three bricks setup in front of three of the candidates, one of them being me, I suddenly reached the most clear thought of my life:

I am only going to hit this once.

In that moment I felt a singular determination, a total, absolute focus, and a total letting go of any thought or concern for my foot, or pride, or any other emotion.

All three bricks were going to all break, and I was only going to hit the stack once.

Watching the video today, you can see me strike the bricks with an ax kick (not even that high of an ax kick, really), see all the bricks explode into pieces, and see me I jump back into cat stance in such joy and total elation.

I had done it! Before I'd thought it was impossible -- but I had just done it!

I want to thank Great Grandmaster so, so much. When ever I face a challenge, I remember those 3 bricks. I remember my Red Belt testing, where I just couldn't break the stack of three, and I remember successfully breaking them at my Black Belt Testing because of my singular, determined thought - I was only going to hit this once.

I'm not physically that big or tall, nor do I weigh that much. The moment I broke the stack of three bricks, though, showed me that I am not limited by my body, actually, but only by my mind. I can, when my mind, focus, and determination is totally set --- break through any obstacle life hands me.

Pil Seung! (Victory!)