Besting Yourself.

Learning to do new things always takes time and effort, a lot of mental wrestling as you find thoughts go through your head saying 'I can't do this.'
I am playing around with spinning fire staff and poy (two flaming balls at the end of a chain that is spun around in various ways) - neither of which I am very good at at the moment and I am truly amazed at some of the things people can pull off with both.

For most people there is the intimidation factor, after which they try a few times to do what they have seen, then they give up, often with some justification, in order to go back to doing what they can do.
This is alright, some things are not for everyone, but never say never. So what if you can't do that spinning back kick this week, try it a couple times a day, every day, then increase the number of repetitions the next week, increasing each week as you go (take your worst technique and make it your best, then repeat the process over and over again).
I remember at a Karate Fellowship hosted by Scott Wall Sensei a while back, I was doing staff work with Lawrence Kane who had noticed that my strikes were lacking any body, basically they were 'all arm.'
This got me to really look at what I was doing, I didn't take offense to it because he was right - I also worked repeatedly on minute details of each little bit of the Sanchin Principles taught by Kris Wilder, reading the book over and over, practicing as I read, practicing throughout the day, at work, at home, out walking, driving, then I bought the DVD recently from the Martial Expo and follow along as I watch it.
As a result I can knock my friend Logan back pretty easily, and he is about two feet taller than me and outweighs me by a good hundred pounds.
Now there is more body behind everything I do, more ground as well. I am still not the best Karateka, nor will I strive to reach for such delusions of grandeur, but I will strive to continually improve upon myself, to be better than I was the week, month, and even year before.

Just by paying attention, really listening to what is said, rather than just hearing the words and having an emotional response.
It is not about making people feel good, warm, and fuzzy; it is about making them work beyond their limits and improve - to what ends? I honestly don't believe in limitations or categorizations, though they are useful tools at times. Nothing more.