Quinn’s Corner • February, 2026
How to be a student.
In every transformation there is a first step, a beginning that opens the door to limitless growth. Those of us—young and old—who train at One With Heart know what it was like to take that first step onto the mat, but oftentimes we don’t think about the things that keep us going.
It requires bravery to take the first step on any new adventure, but there is a different set of skills needed to sustain growth and learning and discovery. Being a good student requires patience, practice, perseverance, and purity.
Training to become a martial artist requires much patience. We must be patient with our training, and we must be patient with ourselves. In a room full of others, it can be tempting to compare ourselves to those around us. We might feel frustrated by some new skill we are trying to learn, and we see others getting it with ease. Comparing ourselves to others, rushing through a lesson to try to keep up—these are traps that we must avoid. We avoid them by practicing patience.
As martial artists, we know the value of hard work and practice. Practice has value in itself as well as being a means to an end of skill acquisition. We have all left a hard class feeling strong and energized; this feeling comes from deep practice. Deep practice comes from focus, from repetition, from paying attention to the instructor, taking feedback, and trying to do it better each repetition.
The formula for perseverance is simple: patience + practice + don’t quit = perseverance. Don’t quit. Simple, but not always easy. Perseverance is manifested on the days when you are tired and stressed, and you don’t want to come train and then you choose to come. Perseverance requires grit, a can‑do attitude, just don’t quit.
Purity is harder to define. The idea of purity has been influenced by so many social factors that the dictionary has four different meanings for the word, and none of them really fit what purity means in the context of becoming a martial artist. Purity means being patient, practicing, and persevering even when it is hard, even when you fall down, doing it with your whole mind, your body, and your heart. It means doing it with love for self, community, and world. It means doing right action, using your skills to make the world a better place and to make you a better you.
Well, that is what it means for me, you are on your own path. You took the first step and you are building your own practice. As you continue your journey, may patience, perseverance, practice, and purity guide your steps, as they continue to guide mine.
Gotong Royong,
Mas Quinn
