Trend in martial artists to end up thinking the same way?

[Ghost]

WHen i read posts on here i can often identify with all of them in some way or another.
I find that with the less experienced members i can think back to when that was the way i thought and i was in awe of so many things or just misinterpreted alot of information, or simply drew the wrong, yet still logical, conclusions.
Then i read more experienced martial artists than myself posts such as Mike and michael/ tim and that lot and i feel myself drawn in their direction thinking yeah that really does make sense now.

Although there will always be differences do you think that most people that stick in the game long enough, regardless of style, end up thinking the same way?
I dont mean like clones but in a sense that we follow parallel paths alot of the time leading to a similar destination, each path being a different style/life.

[Guest]

Good to have you back mate.

I'm flattered at your intro, but I'm not to be bunched in with those guys. I always look to the posts of Mike, Tim, Fire Cobra, Tom, Jujason, You and others who are more experienced and on a higher level to me. So I totally relate to what you are saying, its a good thread.

What I see in the posts from these guys is a maturity that you only get from having been there and come out the other side. And to answer your question, yeah I do think there are some fundemental truths that only experience brings. Unrelated to martial arts, I always remember something my Dad used to say to me. He'd say that in your 20's you care so much about what people think of you, in your 30's you kind of stop caring and just do your thing, and in your 40's you realise that no one was even thinking of you anyway.

I see that in martial arts. The younger guys have an obsession with image and trends, being at the cutting edge of the now. Those more tempered in the arts kind of say, I'm just doing my thing, this is what works for me, I need to go through this. And then the ones who come out the other end have both, they know and believe in what they have been through but have the grace and wisdom to understand what it was like to be there are the start.

I'm in the middle bit right now, I'm caught up in my journey and what it is I have to do, and that makes me pretty closed off. Hey I'll get there in the end I hope, but for right now its about not getting brain damage!