For about six weeks now I have not published an article or a video on www.warriors-journey.com. Normally I post new content every week or at the least every second to keep the whole thing running.
In April, several factors came together that prevented me from producing more content and at the same time moved me to think about the whole project “A Warrior’s Journey”.
In the beginning of April, I changed the gym for a month. I moved to Sitjemam Gym to devote myself to Sports Muay Thai and prepare myself for competitions. The gym is very simple and is located in the middle of nature. This gives me on the one hand a great training environment, but on the other hand the working conditions there are not so great.
Every day four hours of intense Muay Thai training, of course, this makes the body tired , which makes the motivation to work a little bit low.
Furthermore, in middle of April, my father and my stepmother came to visit me for 12 days. If you do not see each other for a long time, you spend your free time together (time besides training, you could call it working time).
However, the more or less “forced” digital off time gave me some room to think about “A Warrior’s Journey” and how I want to shape my future. Of course, I do not want to hide these thoughts from you, it is only mentioned if you are delicate with certain statements, then read the fake lifestyle blogs somewhere, because it could be that you will feel insulted somehow.
But first back to the beginning…
In spring 2015, I launched the blog www.warriors-journey.com. It was designed as a travel blog with the niche martial arts and combat sports.
But the whole idea developed a little earlier. The Big Bang was probably late 2013, but you can read the whole story here.
Step by step I learned the whole blogger 1×1, without any previous knowledge, only with the help of my friend Holzbain. I have admired the successful bloggers, podcasters and digital posers, and I believed that with a good idea, an authentic appearance and perseverance, a successful blog business can be created and that my research on martial arts can be better financed.
In July 2015 I started my exploration in the name of martial arts. First I wrote also the one or the other travel report, but I quickly noticed that I am not interested myself in those things at all and I only wrote these articles to reach more people. However, when I lived in Sri Lanka I decided to stop this, and since then I have focused on martial arts and combat sports around the world.
Insight in the world of the fakes
I am living more or less in two different societies. Those of the bloggers, digital nomads and online entrepreneurs, as well as in the world of fighters and martial artists.
But one thing these societies have in common … both are as fake as the diaries of Adolf Hitler (if I may quote the Retrogott here)! And it gets worse and worse! This is the main realization of the last two years of my life.
In the world of digital nomads and bloggers, one gets preached … “Create something unique, be authentic and give society something back”, really new economy with sustainability and how the whole shit is named.
So I began to create something unique, a blog about a journey to the origins of martial arts, man versus man. The dream of every child who grew up with the movies”Karate Kid”, “Karate Tiger” or “American Shaolin”.
I stayed authentic. Most likely, you can guess from my writing that this is a guy from the Westerwald in Germany. I am on the road in the world, but I know where my roots are and who my homies are. I’m not trying to be something what I’m not. But maybe a little difficult to judge if you do not know me personally.
I am very grateful that I have the privilege of being born where I come from and that I had the opportunity to work towards my freedom, which I now enjoy. For this reason alone, it is only natural to me that I give back something that lies within my possibilities. You can find more about this topic here …
But now to the realization … all this is not important if you want to be successful! It may be quite nice if you are already successful, but basically it depends on other things.
First of all, it is important to kiss asses … so many and big asses that the taste of shit begins to taste you. You need contacts with those at the top. They have perhaps worked a lot for their success and also tasted shit, yet the ego as influencer is so large that it is wants to be well lubricated with plenty saliva at the anus. The whole thing is called “networking” in the scene.
Authenticity is always and everywhere praised, but it is very likely to be a obstacle to your success. Your followers at Facebook, Instagram, Youtube or ICQ do not want to see that you are actually disabled and ugly.
It is important to create a pseudo-world, the ultimate lifestyle. Most of the bloggers and online entrepreneurs I personally could got to know show on their media always that they have an incredible expertise, how they are health conscious, how they upload photos with closed eyes and supposedly meditate, what they have accomplished today, etc ,
But when you meet them in reality, it is clear that this super man is only really great in faking. So let you be told no one is interested in your true personality because you are probably just a loser like the rest of the world.
Sustainability is a big issue, currently everybody talks about that, but mostly, yeah it is just somethinh they talk about. The theory is understood and denied in practice. Basically, the “digital nomad” wants only to enjoy all the advantages of a country, the disadvantages are avoided as much as possible. Earn money in the first world, pay tax if at all, only where you can save the most and live at the expense of the third world, but of course without wanting any discomfort.
It looks like that this lifestyle is going well for many, or these statements are faked again. Basically, I grant everyone this freedom, as long as one does not live at the expense of others and this is just too often the case.
Sustainability today means to buy a designer drinking bottle for 25 €, of which 1 € go to drinking water projects. There will be 1.85 € spent more for the 600 € expensive ticket to Thailand to compensate the CO² balance.
If one has a four-hour week only , that is an incredible amount of free time and if already in countries of the second or even third world to save money in the tropics, then I wonder why hardly anyone ever takes the initiative and does something for a good purpose. In that case, I would be up to read your boring blogs or podcasts or even share something.
If you have read to this point, then you may think that he is only jealous, because he does not reach people with his project. This was the turth for a long time until the realization came to my mind that this digital world is largely invented. For this, of course, you have to look behind it, so many thanks to everyone out there who gave me these insights.
In the world of martial arts there are certain parallels to the above-mentioned facts. Unfortunately! If also in other ways.
When you think of fighters and martial artists, you often have the imagination of someone who is passionate about his work and a little obsessed to get better and better. This is for the one or other the case, but unfortunately now two things are much larger and more important in martial arts.
Money and ego! These two often go hand in hand and the behavior of many fighters has nothing to do with old values like “Bushido”.
The higher graduations (belt, Mongkol, etc.) are easy to buy for a certain fee, thats not new. There are grandmasters who have never fought, but were smart enough to recognize the business potential. A black belt alone does not make a master out of someone.
But everyone wants to be someone, what opens the possibility for the “master” to sell something. If it would be knowledge, I would be willing to pay a lot of money. But in today’s world everything has to go quickly. So a test curriculum is built, which is learned fast and forgot even faster and for a nice fee you have a new piece of cotton to fix your pants on your waist.
A black belt is a white belt that has never given up. Or he is even less than a white belt and just paid a lot.
If money is not the evil, then it is usually the ego that many combat sportsmen and martial artists bring them up to the surface. You have to prove yourself and show that only this or that martial art is the only right one, or even that only this or that gym conveys the style correctly and authentically.
The term “authentic” is gaining more and more attention, especially in the traditional martial arts from South East Asia. For example, “Authentic Muay Thai training” can only be taught by a Thai. Other nationalities are only able to teach the right way, if they join a Thai association.
What a nonsense … The physical laws and the human body are almost identical on the whole planet, which allows the attentive disciple to acquire just as much knowledge of a martial art as his local classmate.
Of course, everyone has a different reason why he does martial arts. Self-defense, competition or life-style. But many have to prove something to others or make it for money. These reasons I personally regard as dangerous, because one puts his health for something, which is quickly vanished.
Today you are fighting and winning; tomorrow no one will talk about it. Today you are making a few hundred euros at an event and tomorrow you’ve spent all the money on drinks because you were celebrating your victory with your friends.
If you have come to this point, you may wonder why I am so upset and vomit it all out. As I said, this is about my insights of the last two years, in which I have dealt extensively with the digital and martial arts world and of course, adapting to any gained knowledge, the evolutionary circle closes.
A Warrior’s Journey will no longer exist in the same way as before. I will no longer travel to look for any fighting techniques behind each stone. I have found my style and my lineage and will only continue on this path.
Furthermore, A Warrior’s Journey has unfortunately (or fortunately) not been a commercial success. I am not dependent on the blog financially and have to amuse the people ala ‘”Training in paradise” or “Live the Dream”, because in the end I have to put the money, time and nerves.
Since I was only able to make small money with the blog so far, I decided that from now on, next to my training, I only do what I personally like to do and not force myself to create content for warriors-journey.com.
In the future, A Warrior’s Journey is all about my story, my research and the way I am. No more general amusement, just what I want!
What does he want???
Back to the roots! Today I see the following in the martial arts scene … The harder you are, the better. In Thailand, fighters at the end of their career often had over 300 fights, the body is totally fucked and most of them have not even be able to save some money for life after the competitions.
If there is no competition in some martial arts, in my opinion this is not smart too, because you never get beyond the training level, unless you are constantly involved in bar fights and testing your skills there.
The smart fighter understands that you should not always hit your heads together with full power. He understands to act hard or soft at the right moment. Sensitivity is required. However, I often only see power, power, power.
I want to create the balance. Realistic, fight-oriented training on the one hand, as well as healing and balancing on the other side.
How that?
Silambam (Stick Fighting) – Long Distance
Muay Thai – middle Distance
Muay Chaiya – short Distance
Silat Pencak – Groundfighting
Yoga Asana – Balance for the body to the martial arts training
Meditation – Spiritual development
For me, this is the perfect connection and my goal is to internalize these teachings and styles as much as possible to share my knowledge in distant future, to all who are interested in it.
Ich folge dir weiter mach weiter so find das du eine Klasse Einstellung hast 👍👍👍💪💪.
LG Bilal
Danke mein Libber! Stabiler Gruß in die Heimat!
Hi Christoph,
harte aber sicherlich nicht ganz unwahre Worte, die Du hier findest. Einiges davon, gerade in der DN-Szene erlebe ich selbst nur zu oft. Es gibt leider nur wenige, die wirklich authentisch sind und trotzdem den gewünschten Erfolg haben. Wie Du sagst, muss man sich eigentlich immer ein Stück weit verbiegen und oftmals hilft einem selbst das nicht weiter. Am Ende wird selbst noch so viel harte Arbeit mit noch so viel Leidenschaft nicht mit dem Erfolg belohnt, den man sich erhofft hat.
Ich finde es umso spannender, dass sich hier scheinbar so klare Parallelen zur Kampfsport-Welt ziehen lassen.
Ich dachte erst, Du willst womöglich mit dem Bloggen aufhören…jetzt bin ich gespannt, was noch so kommt. Ich werde weiter vorbei schauen, um zu sehen, was die Dinge sind, die Dir rund um Kampf und Reise wirklich wichtig sind.
Viele Grüße
Jahn
Hi Christoph,
puh, ich hab auch erst gedacht, dass Du mit dem Bloggen aufhören möchtest. Was ich sehr schade gefunden hätte, denn ich lese Deinen Blog sehr gerne. Auch wenn ich keine “richtige” Kämpferin bin, so finde ich es doch faszinierend, diesen Einblick den Du in Deine Welt gibst.
Und mit den Leuten aus der Online-Business-Szene oder der Kampfsport-Szene: es gibt immer auch Ausnahmen. Die sind nur schwieriger zu finden, weil sie einfach ein wenig leiser sind!
Ich bin sehr gespannt und freue mich, was Du hier in Zukunft schreiben wirst!
Angelika
Hallo Christoph
Erst einmal: ich finde das toll was du hier geschaffen und aufgebaut hast, ebenso Deine Art zu schreiben.
Zum Zweiten möchte ich dir sagen, dass du mir aus der Seele sprichst.
Ich bin jetzt seit 1970 im Taekwon-Do aktiv und habe mir meine Graduierungen hart erarbeitet, habe geschwitzt, geblutet, gekämpft, geweint aber auch gelacht und viele tolle Dinge und Menschen erlebt.
Aber es gibt so viele Wichtigtuer und Pseudo Meister, dass es schon fast weh tut. Sei es in Bezug auf das Wissen in ihrer Kampfkunst oder in den Aussagen, die sie treffen, sei es in dem, was sie im Dojang oder auf der Matte zeigen (oder eher nicht zeigen).
Deshalb mach weiter auf Deinem Weg, den ich gerne mit Freude weiterverfolge.
Ich dachte, ich gehöre einer aussterbenden Rasse an, aber wenn ich Leute wie Dich sehe, weiß ich, dass es auch eine gute Zukunft auf dem “Weg” geben wird!
Gruß
Arnold
Danke für dein Kommentar Arnold und es freut mich, dass du dich mit dem identifizieren kannst, was ich so schreibe, dass ist immer schön zu hören wenn jemand gleich denkt.
Vielleicht wird sich in Zukunft ja auch wieder was zum Besseren ändern. Wir lassen es auf uns zukommen.