Experience, it’s a word that most can use to mislead others intentionally or unintentionally.

What do I mean by this? It’s rather simple really. You hear people say “Oh I have 20 years experience in my line of work or field.” But do they really?

You see 20 years experience could really be 1 year of experience repeated 20 times. Or perhaps 2 years experience repeated 10 times.

In whatever it is that someone has experience in do they make each year different than the last? Are they really learning new things each year? Are they exploring new opportunities? Are they meeting with new people? Are they trying new things? And so on and so forth.

Experience is adding new things all the time. Not repeating the same old year after year.

I’ve been lucky enough that each year of my martial arts career has lead me to new experiences in meeting new people, trying new things, improving upon myself, improving the quality of my students, learning new ways and methods, and so forth. I cannot say I have had any one year the same as another has new stuff is always coming my way or I go towards new things.

I think everyone should  strive for this in their lives.

Master Jonathan Field