The “Shoshin” Concept From Karate Will Make You a Better Writer
Photo by Thao Le Hoang on Unsplash
Great writers can learn a lot from self-defense strategies, especially the practice of karate. There’s a lot of overlap between the basics skills necessary to succeed in both fields: concentration, commitment, training, and strength. Creativity plays an important role in both writing and karate as both activities can be described as artistic.
There is another area of overlap between karate and writing that I believe can change the way that writers grow and flourish. It’s a practice known within the world of karate as “shoshin” and it means “beginner’s mindset.”
What Is Shoshin?
When you think about being a master of karate, one thing likely comes to your mind. A black belt. But before you get your first black belt, you have to climb the ranks through the “kyu” levels or the different color belts. The levels and colors are described below:
“The first five levels, or ranks, are signified with colored belts: white, orange, red, yellow, and green. The sixth and seventh levels are signified with a purple belt, and the eighth through tenth levels are represented with a brown belt. After your last brown belt, you’ll achieve your first black belt, or dan belt.”
There are ten dan levels. The first five dan levels each are given a name. They are respectively: “shodan, nidan, sandan, yodan and godan.”
Here’s what blew my mind. Your first black belt, after going through the kyu levels and earning your colors on your journey to mastery, is called shodan. In Japanese, this means “first level.” It’s the same root word for shoshin or “beginner’s mindset.”
Karate teaches its pupils that even after you reach the level of what many others would consider mastery, the famed black belt, you are only at your first level. The very honor bestowed upon you in your black belt is a tangible reminder that you must always seek to cultivate a beginner’s mindset.
The Shoshin of Writing
If you want to start growing and advancing up the levels of kyu toward becoming a black belt, there’s some basic and core advice you could follow. You could consider writing every day. Building an audience. Reading great writing and finding good connections. You can practice being authentic and tell stories that captivate your audience.
There’s no doubt that some combination of these skills will help you advance toward becoming a great writer. With training and time, you can work your way up from a white belt, to an orange belt, to a purple belt. If you stick at it long enough and refuse to give up even when the times get tough, you can maybe even get to your black belt of writing. I know a lot of good writers who have gotten to that point, thinking that they made it to the top.
But the really great writers know that reaching the first black belt isn’t the end of the journey. Great writers know that the first black belt is shodan and they have a beginner’s mindset.
Having a beginner’s mindset means that you believe that the process is important. You don’t take shortcuts. You don’t stop working hard. You don’t rest on your laurels and expect people to worship you. You put out high-quality content because it’s who you are.
Writing with a beginner’s mindset means continually thinking of new ways to say common truths. It means not being satisfied with the first adverb that comes to mind simply because it’s the fastest. It actually means re-reading the paragraphs you write. If you did a quick poll of Medium writers, you’d be shocked at what percentage of writers never go back and re-read what they write.
Shoshin also means that you prepare both before and after you write, much like how expert fighters approach their practice of karate. Martial artists know that the stretching before a fight and the cool-down moments afterward are some of the most important of the whole endeavor.
As a writer practicing shoshin, it’s important to remember that how you prepare to write will differentiate your skill. Very few people can randomly sit down at a computer, cold and unconnected, and instantly begin writing masterful words. The sleep you get, the way you brainstorm ideas, and how you ease into your writing process will all point to your level of mastery, what level of black belt your writing takes after.
Finally, believing in shoshin means that you look to learn from every situation. You treat people with respect. You keep writing. You keep editing. You keep asking for help, growing stronger with each conversation, each iteration of success. You learn from your mistakes and you capitalize on moments of opportunity with speed, strength, and savvy.
Take this article for example. I wrote this article back in April. I’ve published dozens of articles with Better Marketing, so when I submitted this article I was thinking it had some good potential. It got sent back with some notes from my friend Niklas Göke with some ideas on how to make it stronger. Seeing that he is further ahead in his kyu levels, with many more black belts to his name, I was thankful for his input and took his advice to heart.
A beginner’s mindset is never looking down on helpful input. That doesn’t mean you have to invite every voice to the table of feedback. Sometimes, having a black belt means you can throw your weight around a bit and you can stick to your skills. However, there’s a difference between confidence and arrogance. Shoshin allows a writer to project confidence filled with humility rather than pride laced egotism.
This is how your writing adventure will thrive. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a great writer who has never managed to master the basics. A lot of what ultimately improves writers is time and repetition. A long obedience in the same direction is the greatest secret to helping level up through the kyu belts.
Yet, once you reach your first black belt, remind yourself that mastery is not an end destination but rather another step from which you can begin all over again.
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities. In the expert’s mind there are few.” — Shunryu Suzuki