A Journey Begins

Hi this is my first post on steemit I’d like to give myself a little introduction on the blog I am starting. So first and foremost here’s my backstory, I am an amateur hiphop producer based on youtube whose artist name is Xavier the Iconoclast (often shortened to X the Icon). I am always looking into any creative project I can do and have many interests.

I was introduced to steemit during the youtube adpocalypse where everyone was scrambling to create or find alternatives to youtube. At the time, and still now, I did not qualify for monetization because my views were too low and I hadn’t had the channel for very long. But, I wanted to secure the future of my channel, so I started a second channel on Vidme, then it died off. So, I started looking for more options that I can get into while they’re young and get a head start. It was through Adam Kokesh’s youtube channel that I heard about Dtube and my interest was peaked. So I go to create an account and see I need to sign up for steemit.

I did and never posted anything on Dtube seeing as there isn’t currently much of a market for hiphop beats there right now (maybe I need to create the market I don’t know). But yesterday I had an idea on what and how I could utilize Dtube/Steemit. I looked to my second biggest passion, martial arts. I am currently at the fattest I have ever been but a while ago was finally able to pick up my favorite sport/martial art into my life once again, Muay Thai. I had trained for about 4ish years give or take 1/2 a year (I don’t remember if I stopped at the end or beginning of the that year) which was my freshman year of high school.

At the time I was in the best shape of my life, it just so happened that at the time I had my first run in with mood disorder and my mental health was beginning to slip. A combination of medication bills, psychiatrist visits, and poor business at my mom’s work meant that my mom could no longer afford my Muay Thai classes. I was crushed, this contributed greatly to my depression. I tried getting into it two years later, but I was so out of shape by that time from medication weight gain and stress eating plus lack of motivation to exercise, that I quit within a month. I was in a really bad place mentally at the time. At that moment I realized how much I had lost, my physique, my skill, my favorite sport (plus the only sport that gives me the motivation to train hard), but most of all, my motivation. I was depressed again for a while, until my medication started to even me out and I was good for a while, which leads up to now, where I have a lot more time to dedicate to martial arts and to bettering myself as well as some funds to do so.

That leads up to the question, what will I be posting? I have decided to document my martial arts journey on the internet in the attempt to better myself and so I can get feedback from other people and build a community around me. I have purchased two books on Wing Chun, that will be arriving by mail with in the next 3 days, after becoming fascinated with the philosophy and movements of Wing Chun. When I made the purchase I had the intention only of being able to add something fun that is physical into my life besides just my Muay Thai classes. But as I thought about the possibilities I decided to create an experiment out of this. The original idea was to see how skilled I can become in Wing Chun without a formal teacher. However I realized that this is too abstract to measure. I do realize I can never truly master something without a teacher teaching me how to do it properly, but I don’t have the intention of becoming a master of Wing Chun. I just want to gain some peace and discipline that can’t be found in the fast paced competitive nature of Muay Thai. I also want to see if I can improve upon my Muay Thai with the diversity of two martial arts. So to sum up what the official experiment how much can I physically better myself with martial arts. This will be measured in tangible things such as weight loss, mile times, weight PRs, etc.

Every Sunday (god willing) I will post a new blog entry detailing the progress I have made/am making, how I am going to achieve the next step, and what my next step is. I will have a section for most anyone trying to better themselves on any level with in the posts. I will detail general fitness from my week, martial arts gains from both Wing Chun and from my Muay Thai classes, followed by a dissection of a martial arts concept, then a philosophical life concept, and end it with an inspirational quote that is topical to whatever I have learned from the week.

Summary
I am an amateur music producer that also does Muay Thai. I am going to try to learn Wing Chun from a book and document my overall physical progress every week in muay thai, general fitness, and Wing Chun. My goals are self betterment, not to become the world’s greatest Wing Chun practitioner.