Choose to Take the Journey

当たって砕けろ
“Go collide and smash into pieces.”
-Japanese proverb

Recently, many of my friends have either gotten married, gotten engaged, or have indicated that their relationships are heading in that direction. While that’s all well and good (I would love to get married myself), many of them have already begun to turn soft. Why does this happen? Since when does being in a serious committed relationship give one permission to get fat, get lazy, and stop kicking ass? Since when is security and stability a reason to lose one’s killer instinct?

Your killer instinct is what has allowed you to kick doors open when they were closed. To be the first to shoot. To make clutch decisions. To act even in the face of terrifying ambiguity. Perhaps your killer instinct is what has allowed you to get your girlfriend or wife in the first place! Hopefully, you are not one of those people who has lost that je ne sais quoi.

Your killer instinct must always be preserved. Figuratively speaking, if you are not killing, you are being killed. Of course in a modern society you cannot just go killing whomever you please (thankfully). But if you’ve ever seen someone who has lost that edge, you will see that no one is killing them, but they are in fact dying. It is very subtle. There will be more frequent bouts of indecisiveness, an increasing lack of resolve, a loss of impulse control. There will be hints of moodiness, cowardice, and social withdrawal. Or maybe it will be conspicuously obvious to you as they are already visibly fat, lazy, and getting a good whooping on a daily basis.

The way I see it, marriage is not the end goal in life, but merely the starting point of a new adventure. You will need your killer instinct alive and kicking in order to begin this new chapter of your life, one filled with greater challenges and even greater rewards.

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