I was in this mixed martial arts gym in Bali, where when you looked outside, you could see the greenery. It was so serene, so I decided to sit somewhere in the gym to relax, tired after my workout.
It was when my silence was suddenly disrupted by a boisterous voice sounding from behind me. It turned out to be a guy telling this one story, his voice in utter disbelief.
He started talking about this black belt karate sensei who visited the gym. Apparently after some time talking to the MMA athletes in the room, he declared that he could beat every fighter in the gym.
Upon hearing his declaration of greatness, everyone in the gym was itching to brawl.
Unfortunately, we will never know the outcome of this as the karate fighter turned down every offer to take it to the ring as he said that he didn’t need to beat anyone to prove his point. He saw it as an irrefutable fact.
As I was slyly eavesdropping on the conversation, I began to think about how the story would have unfolded. Now, I believe that it wasn’t because the karate fighter was a fraud trying to be all bark no bite.
Instead, he was totally confident and convinced that he could beat all of them.
However, the nature of mixed martial arts is, as the name suggests, a combat sport that includes striking, grappling and ground fighting. This kind of well roundedness is an edge that good MMA fighters have.
In this situation, I would imagine that the fighters would try to get the karate sensei on the ground. Once this happens, he wouldn’t have any way to fight back as karate is a striking based sport.
This memorable exchange has reminded me of Robin Sharma’s talk about having a ‘white belt mentality’. He says that being a sensei in one aspect makes it easy for someone to ‘fall in love with success’. It is a danger that makes people slack off from doing the work that earned them the success they have.
My favourite role model who has this mindset is Jeff Bezos, who believes in looking at each day of working as ‘day one’. This allows him to work in the white belt mentality and allows him to grow rather than succumb to his ego. Let’s be honest and put ourselves in his shoes; it takes great mental strength to think like this when you’re one of the richest people on Earth.
Being a ‘black belt’ at something will inevitably distort one's vision as it might take away curiosity that they once had. Even though we can sometimes be confident that we can navigate through things with the experience we have, we will become blind to some aspects that only a clear perspective can catch. As a result, we might miss some finer details. Putting on beginners’ glasses will help us approach things with an empty mind as they are eager to learn as much as possible.
Having the white belt mentality isn’t something that should discourage us. It is rather a tool to help us refocus on our goals during times where we might be misguided. Somebody who thinks they are too exceptional to keep on learning will only be chained down to their current state when everybody else is moving forward.
Just because you are a black belt in one thing, that doesn’t mean you are in another. We shouldn’t be afraid to keep our beginner's minds when approaching all things, old or new. One should be a student for life who keeps on questioning things. Through this, we will be able to become better than who we were yesterday.
I plan to implement this mindset in everything I do… except maybe Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, as I am still a fresh white belt novice at it. This piece of writing is just a good reminder to preserve the white belt mentality when I will one day earn a black belt in whatever chosen craft I choose to do in the future.
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“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few..” Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
By JCW, 7th June 2021
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