Have you ever met a person who was skilled in martial arts and seemed insecure? If an insecure martial artist sounds like an oxymoron, that’s because just like most people, you imagine that someone skilled in the martial arts would be confident.
It isn’t just a stereotype, though—training in martial arts is a solid and direct path toward building confidence. But how exactly do martial arts improve your confidence and what’s the difference between confidence from martial arts and other activities, like learning a new instrument?
Clear Victories Worth Celebrating
Confidence is a little more complicated than many people realize. While it might feel right to be harsh on yourself in service of reaching higher goals, forgetting to celebrate your victories is a recipe for low confidence. Who would feel good about themselves if they never feel like they’ve achieved anything worth celebrating?
Martial arts is perfectly designed to create a healthy habit of self-congratulating. It’s impossible to ignore the clear victories that come from mastering a new technique or increasing to a new level.
Plus, the instructors at Premier Martial Arts are experts in martial arts and motivation—we make sure to celebrate every student’s victories along the way to build both their skill and confidence.
Look Good, Feel Great
We can’t ignore the obvious reason martial arts is one of the best ways to build confidence: our physical health and fitness are deeply entwined with how we feel about ourselves. When you invest time and effort into your body, you achieve the same result as anything you put time and effort into, whether art, work, or a garden: a healthy sense of pride.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to be happy with what you see in the mirror, either!
Pushing Yourself
There’s a reason so many sports movies have scenes where a character is pushing themselves to the edge of almost giving up; before you can achieve something bigger than you’ve ever achieved, you’ll need to push yourself farther than you’ve ever gone.
Training in martial arts offers the classic path to building the confidence needed to pursue bigger things in life. By creating a place where you can train yourself to meet your limits and then push just a little farther, martial arts create the confidence needed to push yourself in other areas of life too.
Develop Your Fearlessness
Would you describe yourself as fearless? As anxiety disorders become the most prevalent mental health condition in the U.S., it seems like most people are struggling with more fear, not feeling fearless.
While exercise in general and especially martial arts help to reduce anxiety, when it comes to feeling fearless, practicing the martial arts is key for two reasons:
- Self-defense
- Learning to fail
While gaining more self-defense skills is a clear confidence booster and fear-reducer, learning to fail as a path to fearlessness might surprise you. Yet, just like anxiety, so much of our fear is not due to what is happening, but what could happen.
Through training in the martial arts, you learn that failure isn’t a world-ending catastrophe, but a crucial part of any learning and growth. Learn to fail and you’ll learn there’s much less to fear in life than you thought.
Martial Arts is a Uniquely Powerful Path to Higher Confidence
While practicing martial arts isn’t the only way to build your confidence, it’s one of the only ways to build your confidence while gaining a long list of other incredible benefits, from increased fitness to new friends.
Confidence is the result of pushing your limits and learning to trust your ability to overcome while gaining a new appreciation for yourself. Taking on more responsibility at work can build your confidence or having your child handle certain chores around the house for rewards can build their confidence, but neither of these options results in significantly better health, new relationships, and of course, a life-long skill.
When it comes to building confidence, practicing martial arts is an extra healthy and highly effective option. If you or your child could use a confidence boost (and who wouldn’t want that?), Premier Martial Arts ensures that every student receives a tailored, expert-informed, and all-around enjoyable martial arts learning experience.
Find Martial Arts near you and start building your confidence and living your best life.
