Introducing The Greatest Teachers - Difficulty and Doubt.

Sensei used to talk about those who loved the IDEA of training, but when it came time to train they would make themselves scarce, often only showing up to stand round in Karate Gi leaving one to wonder just how they managed to earn the right to wear the darker piece of cloth around their waists.
Shihan said, on more than one occasion, that these people were very good at Kuchi Waza, or Mouth-Flapping-Drills, and knew very little of any sort of experience on the floor.

There are a lot of really nice training facilities out there, really big Organizations, really high ranking Yudansha with some very neatly framed fancy certificates.
I do not have any of these things, I often train with a friend on the weekends where we go through Kata and do some basic drills along with some light Hojo Undo... I do not have a Dojo of my own, I have a Gi and a Belt that my Sensei gave me as he was getting rid of all the Karate related stuff from his home... My Shodan certificate and most of my rank certificates were burned up in a fire... The last person to see my certificate in a frame was Kris Wilder.
So for all intents and purposes, all I have are the clothes on my back, the belt around my waist, and what knowledge I maintain in my head... I used to have some old videos that my Sensei had also given me in the purge, but, again, all I have is my training.

The point being that often people tend to focus more on the Belt of a person than they actually do on improving themselves.
The Belt may be an ideal, but the better way to go is not to be focused on the Belt at all, but to allow yourself to become what the ideal stands for, then the Belt Color ceases to matter because the true ideal for which you have worked shines through in the way you are, the way you train, the skill that comes out in your practice AND your everyday life.
In myself, I still have a very long way to go in many respects... A lot of people idolize getting a fifth or sixth degree Black Belt while I simply want to be better than I was yesterday.

It certainly is hard to continue sometimes, but sometimes the doubt itself is an excellent motivator. One Pointed focus is more than a frame of mind, it is a way of being.