Humility Vs. Confidence

The self-confidence of the warrior is not the self-confidence of the average person.

A ‘WARRIOR’ has a different mindset than ‘average’ people.

One of the first things we notice about a warrior is the way they carry themselves. They have a certain level of confidence, you can feel it when you’re around them, they can inspire you because of it. It isn’t a false confidence, it’s real, it’s also earned. The warrior also has true humility. They know that they have achieved or endured things that most can’t or won’t do. But they don’t flaunt it, they don’t hold it over you. Often they externalize it and use it to help you in your own journey.

The average person seeks approval in the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls it humility.

There are levels we all go through in our own journeys. We tend to start out seeking approval from those we look up to or those that we love, and in many cases from anyone who notices… As we progress we begin to learn that we are ultimately responsible for our own actions. We learn to control the things we can control and let go of the things we cannot. It is our own mindset that determines how we progress in life. We can cultivate a positive outlook and focus on our own personal growth every day or stay where we are in life and become fixated on thoughts of the past or future.

The path of the warrior’s journey often takes you into this world of self-improvement. Taking your own thoughts and actions under the microscope to constantly improve who you are and what you are made of is not easy to do. It’s painful and can be very a slow process. You need patience and discipline to make the growth happen. Both are things you need to practice deliberately to get better at it. It is this very search for personal perfection that in an of itself leads you to have that certain level of confidence we all want and as a result the humility that makes us a genuinely great human being.

The average person surrenders to the pressures that build while being challenged. The warrior seeks challenge and displays patience with the things they must learn to do.

I have been immersed in a project where we are going out and collecting histories of some of the Martial Arts true Masters or “Legends” who are still living and in some cases practicing/training. Getting their history recorded in their own voice for future generations to learn from and put into a podcast format. One of the most rewarding aspects of this is that I get to selfishly ask them questions that interest me personally. I often ask things that help me uncover what it means to them to walk the warrior path.

My favorite conversation so far has been with Marty Knight.
You can listen to this episode here.

He is a true warrior to me. He carries himself with a level of confidence that could be off-putting to many people if it weren’t as tempered as it is with his humility. He equally balances a positive belief in himself; what he can do and the absolute knowledge that he has accomplished more than average people in his career, with a true sense of humility in knowing that he has gotten to where he is from the help of others and a very true love and respect for those that have come before him. When you talk with him you feel the energy and passion for what he does but you never get the feeling that he thinks he is better than anyone else.