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What are You Willing to Sacrifice: Your Character Ascertained by Your Actions

Being open to judgment is one of the first lessons one needs to learn to be able to progress through the journey of attaining efficient skill.  As an instructor of Tai Chi Chuan, not only must I be able to sacrifice my prideful vanity of knowledge to be able to better understand the teachings of my instructors; also, this sacrifice must be made to be open to the critiques of my students.  For some it is difficult to appreciate the nature of proper judgment.  For some, it is difficult to understand that not all judgments are negative.  I believe if one does not attain the understanding of what judgment is they can never efficiently instruct.  Learning that judgments given are tools to help one better assess the reality of a matter aids one in developing a better understanding of who they are and where they are in their development.  Learning to be able to take criticism properly is a major skill to help develop a robust and healthy mental and emotional wellbeing.  Properly gaining this skill as a student aids the learner to properly rise to the responsibilities of an apposite instructor.  It is my belief that a fit instructor not only be able to give tutoring and censure, they must also be able to listen, understand and learn from those around them, be they mentor or apprentice. Hubris hinders proper growth.  Ignorance of meaning hinders proper growth.  One who is full of themselves, unable and unwilling to properly listen to judgment, and who is ignorant of their major and minor shortcomings is destined to fail at whatever they endeavor.  Learning to properly sacrifice to gain proper growth is necessary in the development of efficiency.  Learning to sacrifice your hubris and comfortable ignorance will allow you to better understand judgments made about you, noting that not all positive judgments qualifies one for greatness and not all negative judgments relegates one to failure.   The question is: “What are you willing to sacrifice and why?”

What people are willing to sacrifice is a significant factor of who they are.  Some people are willing to give up their personal relationships for the success they find in having depth of monetary wealth.  Some people will give everything they own to make sure the people closest to them never feel the pain of need.  Others are willing to give of themselves to the detriment of themselves, while others will not sacrifice anything they value for anything other than themselves.  Judgments made based on relevant information can be used to measure one’s self and one’s values to the value sets of those they are around and/or choose to be a part.   The question I have come to find, if honestly answered, that can bring a grand insight on a person’s nature is, “Why did you choose to sacrifice what you did and how does your sacrifice benefit you, your environment and the people you hold most dear?”  This question should be asked of one’s self, one should make it noticeable they are open to receiving this question, and this question should be asked to the people you choose to place yourself around and/or are around. Doing so will open the opportunity for one to gain a clearer understanding of reality.  The problem that arises is many people are willing to ask “why” questions to others and not to themselves and/or are willing to properly answer the question when it is presented by another.  Their comfort level decreases when they are faced with asking themselves this question or when this question is posed by others.

When “why” questions are asked about one’s actions, whether or not the question is interpersonal or intrapersonal, the answers given normally lead to judgments of a person’s character.  We are consistently being judged and judging people, this is how we choose our choices in life.  We, hopefully, accurately weigh the pros and cons of a situation with the given and relevant information available and then make a proper assessment.  There is an imposing negative connotation around the term judgment.  “Who are you to judge me”, “Don’t judge me”, “You’re judging me, stop”; these phrase are uttered in this time of ours, and to me, with no actual accurate account of what judgment is.  Being criticized for one’s actions should aid in the development of one’s being in a society.  The positive attribute gained, from understanding one’s perspective from judgment, is the ability to objectively study one’s self and one’s nature.  It is my belief that we should ask of those we place around ourselves to consistently give their account of our actions thereby giving us the opportunity to evaluate ourselves properly.  Why hold people close to us and not respect their outlook and assessments of our lives?  Shouldn’t we surround ourselves with the most loyal, trustworthy and honest people around us; which are adjectives of judgment mind you, so that we can have proper feedback about ourselves and our actions?    Not all people believe this to be true.  Some people have the desire to never understand the failures and faults of their actions.  Some people are willing to sacrifice evidence of the truth to maintain their outlook on reality.

We can measure priorities of a person by how they choose to sacrifice their time.  The choices we make sacrifice what it is we did not choose.  To make the better choice is to make the choice that betters yourself and others efficiently.  Do you spend time with those you will miss, or do you go do other things that will enrich your life in some other form or way.  Thinking of yourself solely will lead people to judge that you have no true want or desire to have them in your life, which will lead to you not having those you claim to want in your life actually being a part of your life.  The choices of your past and present define your future environment.  What do you do when you are faced with the opportunity to study and focus on a long-term goal and you also have an opportunity to develop a chance that can bring you a perceived instant gratification?  What we choose to do in our lives is a defining factor of who we are, what we believe, and what we hold the most dear.  The moments of change in our lives are preceded by moments of choice.   Our choices of what to sacrifice and what to save shows the people who are aware of the choices we make what we value most.  What we do, why we do it, and who we do it with allows the people around us access to our thought processes and they are able to assess our character accurately by the choices we make in their presence, whether we choose to believe it or not.  What it normally comes down to is the most important things receive sacrifices of the highest levels defined by our personal moral code and the least important things receive little to no sacrifices. Observing what someone chooses opens the opportunity to measure what is the most important to that person.

Choosing what work, hobbies, and other personal life matters are all issues faced when looking at one’s life as a set of options within a finite set of space and time.  We must be able to properly judge those within those realms and ourselves to efficiently make choices.  Not always must we sacrifice one part of our lives for the betterment of another part of our life.  Not always are judgments made negative.  The idea that one has to sacrifice something positive to gain in the product of another positive facet of their life and believing people have no right and should not be able to judge others because judging in and of itself is wrong, to me, is one of the greatest misconceptions people have allowed themselves to believe.  One should not have to give up positive relationships to gain in other endeavors.  One should not have to sacrifice their value set to be able to understand a person or persons of a differing moral order.  This is the difference between compromising and collaborating. Make sure to realize that not all judgments are bad.  Understand and accept what you sacrifice points out what it is in life you hold most dear and those around you will define you by their judgments of your choices; also make sure to hold yourself to your standards and rules, make sure to accurately judge yourself.  Instead of stating to people never to judge you, make sure to ask counsel of those you hold most dear in hopes their judgments of your actions will lead you to creating a better environment for in which you will exist.  Be open to the understanding that when you sacrifice your time for one thing and will not for another, you categorize what it is you hold most dear.  Make sure that what you actually hold most dear can be observed by what you sacrifice.  Make sure that what you hold most dear brings you efficient growth.  To maintain the judgment of high esteem, from yourself and others, make sure your sacrifices are evidence of what you actually hold dear and are of the effect to better yourself and those you hold most dear.  Be willing to sacrifice your hubris and your ignorance so you are better able to attain efficient understanding of the environment of which you are a part and to have an efficient effect on your environment as well.

For more information Winston’s his martial arts academy please visit Internal Magnification.  

Winston Price, Executive Producer, has over a decade and a half of marketing, advertising and public relations experience. He began his business career in 1995 and is a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington. Winston also is a master martial artist and personal trainer with over 2 decades of knowledge and experience. Winston runs his own school, Internal Magnification Martial Arts, where he focuses on helping people reach their personal goals of health and fitness via At-Home personal training with martial foci of Taekwondo, Tai Chi Ch’uan, Hapkido and Ba Gua Zhang. As an executive producer for VoiceAmerica, Winston utilizes his skills in business and personal training to help new and existing hosts maximize their opportunity with the VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network by supporting his hosts with the business and personal aspects of creating and developing their show. Winston believes that each host brings their own flavor to the Network. By properly coaching and motivating his hosts, they are able to produce THEIR show with THEIR style and THEIR passion being at the forefront of every broadcast.