Aiki Institute Of Spokane

Don’t like it?  Delete and start over.  Yes computers are wonderful.  Add a little contrast to a photo, don’t like it change it, do it over.   Write a new business plan. Don’t like the way the numbers work out?  Do it over and adjust the numbers.  A problem with the web site?  Do over!

In today’s world it is particularly easy to have do overs.  Just like when we played as children.  Miss the ball just call “do overs”!  In Aikido, don’t like the way that technique turned out or the way that kata looked, do it over. Make it better.

Does the idea of “do overs” relieve us of some of the pressure to do it right?  While it is nice to have do overs there are no undo’s.  This is particularly important in our relationships.  When meeting someone for the first time, if we fail to make the impression we want we can always do it over but we can not ever undo that first impression. We will not ever have that moment again.  When trying to make our point we can try again, do over, but we can not undo that which we said.  There are no undo’s.

In our training, this moment can never be experienced again.  The attack, the throw, the pin, can not be undone, we can only do over.  This is the nature of training, of practice.  So do it over, and over, and over.  Make each time the best that you can at that moment for that moment will never be again and there are no undo’s.

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