EPTToday I lost another SC2 match, after the defeat spree of yesterday. It was not nice, I assumed that I had improved a bit, but looks like I didn't, looks like I just won some matches, not actually learning much about it. Then, I tried to calm down and think about why I jumped into SC2. I didn't found the answer but I understood motivation in that moment, I realized how can I turn defeats into learning, just because I remembered the connection I made between Batman: The Dark knight Rises and Samurai X (Rurouni Kenshin). Is not like there is actually a connection, but I think they both touched the a topic that I will explain now.
In Batman TDKR, Bruce Wayne retires as Batman. When Bane, the bad guy, appears the Dark knight is unable to beat his oponent: it all ends when Bane defeats Batman, beating him up like a Boxer does with a punching bag.
Let's remember why Bruce Wayne becomes Batman. The kid wants to fight crime, and he becomes a deadly ninja trained by a secret society of "peacemakers", other ninjas that will destroy evil even if their actions have a lack of morality. After the destruction of that society, Bruce Wayne discover that he needs to become a symbol, and he want to use his fear to bats to create this symbol. Why?, to 'share his fear with the criminals'. Fear is the fuel he needs to become Batmam.
So then, why Wayne is unable to beat this bad guy? Is the bad guy so strong that not even Batman can beat him? No sir, is not so simple, is not about muscle. Wayne can't beat Bane because our good guy lost 'the will', but not the will of fight, that's simple. He lost the will to live... since Rachel death in hands of the Joker, Wayne lost the only reason why he desired to survive another fight. In other words, he does not fear death anymore.
Not fearing death sounds cool and make people, usually heroes, look strong and rude. But in this great film we realize that not fearing death is actually a bad idea.
After the Batman is defeated, Bane takes Wayne to a Pit, a prision if you like. Why not killing him? Because Bane wants Bruce to feel the defeat, to taste it, to destroy his soul before allowing him to die.
In this pit, there is a Doctor, a guy that appears to be blind and hopeless...
Long story short; in order to leave the prision, you must climb the pit. Obviously no one have never done it, except by a child many years ago. Our hero tries the challenge and fail. Multiple times.
The not-yet Batman can't find an answer, why he can't climb a pit? In this moment is when things goes interesting.
Bruce have a talk with the doctor, and the wise doc tells him something like this:
How can you fight longer than possible if you lack the spirit most important impulse?
The film is very literal, if Bruce wants to leave the pit he must climb without the rope (a rope that prevents you from spreading your brain in the floor) to feel fear again.
Fear is the key... if we change the phrase, we can get this: the desire of living is the key. Fear of death is the oposite of the desire of living. Bruce must have the will to live in order to beat Bane. He could just sit there and wait for death... well, death means defeat (lol).
Okay this is going too long... in Samurai X the protagonist is a disciple of a sword-fighting style that is extremely powerful. This style have an ultimate technique, the 'Amakakeru Ryū no Hirameki', this skill can not be dodged, and if performed correctly can only result in victory.
Hey not yet, is not as easy as 'practicing every day' to dominate the technique, the only way of performing this attack successfully is having to learn a 'secret principle'. This principle is really simple: life. The swordman must desire living with every drop of his soul (for example, he must desire to survive a battle to go back home with his wife) before he can peform the Amakakeru.
After all this non-sense reading, you can see the relation in this two concepts of motivation. We can turn fear in desire, but first, we must feel the fear. No one knows how death feels (because if you do, you're dead man) but we all fear death, make that a reason for living at maximun, and that doesn't mean get drunk in every weekend. Is more like, try to find a reason in the persons around you to make you feel fear to the posibility of losing them.
