There is a saying:

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

I spent the last year playing a very serious game of fighting cancer. I won. 

The prize felt very stupid—

I get to stay alive. That’s serious. 

But also ridiculous. I WON that prize. Should I have to win it every day?

Apparently I did have to win it back.

Making progress towards my goals is a big deal to me. I am always thinking of the next achievement I’m striving for.

The treading water fight for life from cancer was not very satisfying. I was happy to have my martial arts to make progress on.

Not many people have a black belt. I am going to get one.

I tried to find out how many blackbelts there are. It’s not so easy to find out.

What’s it for? A lot of people get to the rank of black belt, dust off their hands and call it done.

The true experts say that the black belt is just the beginning.

But it took me years of practice every day to get this far. How can it be the beginning? I know I’m not that good. I have so much further to go. It would be a shame to take that movement literacy and not do anything more.

In that way, it’s like winning the prize in the cancer fight. I win the right to keep going.

I have the right. Will I exercise it?

I didn’t notice that life was hard when I didn’t have to fight for it.

I didn’t notice much about fighting until I started my black belt journey.

The cancer stuff was not what I expected, but I did it. Life goes on.

The fight goes on.

I plan to use what I learned and what I earned to keep going and earn more prizes.