It’s been a while since our last Budo Bulletin. The past few months have been a bit of a blur personally, in between work commitments, hosting events here in Toowoomba, a family trip away, and being unwell the past few weeks.

As a result of all this, it has felt like it has been difficult to build the momentum necessary to front up to train and teach, and to keep on top of the behind the scenes activities for the Club and QKR Treasurer’s role.

This feeling of burn out is fairly common at this time of year. Short hours of daylight and cold weather can make it much harder to feel like you have the energy to go into the dark and cold to go and train something that will challenge your physicality and your focus. As a result, class numbers wildly fluctuate and people who were once regular stalwarts become absent friends.

I would like to put out a rallying call to our community. A call to reconnect, restart and refocus our own individual journeys in a way that will help all of us to do the same. This is because our training always happens in the context of someone else’s contribution of their time and physical presence. We don’t progress by throwing our effort into the void.

In saying this, I acknowledge how hard all three can be to address when restarting after an absence.: The re-familiarisation with the reason you wanted to start in the first place; the decision to make sure that you actively choose to walk into the dojo.; and, of course, reflecting on the “what now” to guide what you want your training to achieve. These all time mental energy and time that can seem scant, especially before the Equinox.

I want to help by restating my own commitment to reconnect, restart and refocus my martial arts journey. This includes some grading goals in the short to medium term and a reorganising of my own training schedule to facilitate this. And of course that cannot be done without the help and support of the Club community.

So I ask everyone to step back into the breach. Reach out and let us know how you have been. Just turn up. And think on what you want to achieve from your training. Together, all things are possible.

私たちが頑張れば、それは可能です
Watashitachi ga ganbareba, sore wa kanōdesu

If we do our best, it can be done