I'm the assistant coach of my old (I graduated last year) high school's fencing team, and the other day at practice I was having some problems getting them to do the drills I wanted them to do, so here's some of what I'm going to say to them next practice.

What you get out of anything- fencing, martial arts, school, life- can be figured out by a simple equation. How much you get out of an activity equals how much you put in times how much you take out. At first, this might seem a little strange that I say both "putting in" and "taking out," but that's because they really are two different things, and they're both necessary. If you're training in a sport, and the coach tells you to do a drill to practice something that you don't want to do, you should still do it. Of course, there are (for my purposes) four ways to do it:

First, you can neither put in anything nor take anything out, and since 0 x 0 = 0, you will get nothing from the exercise. Second, you can put something into it, that is, put in effort to actually do the drill, but not take anything out of it, so while you're still doing, you're not really going to get much out of it. Third, you can not put any effort in, but take something out- do the drill and get what the drill is meant for. The last way, and the best, is to both put something in and take something out. For example, if you are doing a fencing drill that is meant to practice a certain move of bladework, and you don't really want to work on that aspect, you can do it anyway, but add in some footwork, and focus on getting what you want and need out of the drill while doing what your coach wants you to do.

It's important to make sure that you take time to find the good in situations, other people, and yourself. Even if a situation seems completely terrible, or you absolutely can't stand someone, if you calm your mind enough to look at it more objectively, you can find something good. Naturally, you have a life to live, so you probably won't be finding the good in everything and everyone. But do make an effort to do it sometimes.

It's also very important to find good in yourself. Many people forget about this part. They find the good in others, in situations, but never or rarely find the good in themselves. It can be very easy to have negative thoughts about yourself while having positive thoughts about others, because many of us, in trying to be "good people," put ourselves aside while worrying about others. However, this isn't a good way to be.Yes, we all have faults, but if we focus only on our faults, that leads to a very negative mind. The other side of the coin is seeing only the good in ourselves, and believing that we can do no wrong. This isn't good either. It's important to see our faults for what they are, so we can work on fixing them, but also to see the parts that are already good. This reminds us that we do have some good, and we can get better.

So, as you go along your path, remember that there is good everywhere, and you just have to look a little harder sometimes in order to see it.