THE NONLINEAR PATH 21: Piercing Through To Your Goal
Developing Focus To Cut Through The Noise, Distractions, Obstacles, And Fear
Why do martial artists break boards, or bricks? What purpose does it hold beyond being an attention-grabbing spectacle? The exercise of breaking boards does have a real training purpose central to both success in martial arts and in life. It helps to reinforce an important lesson: piercing through to reach your goal.
Breaking a hard object like a board is not easy. To help with the training process, we use specific types of boards. While there are plastic break-away boards to start with, in my art of Poekeolan Tjimindie Tulen we always used specifically prepared pieces of wood, usually 12”x12” pine in a 3/4” thickness. These boards are sometimes baked in an oven to help dry them out fully and then are held in a specific stabilizing manner by another practitioner or two.
All this preparation helps to create a positive experience for students to train strikes properly and safely. We apply similar methods to wide flat bricks as students move up the ranks. Students practice strikes or kicks, from open hand, chops, punches and elbows, to kicks of all sorts to perfect alignment for safe and successful breaking. It takes professional guidance to do it right and without serious injury.
However, all the baking and drying, or prepping and aligning in the world can still not be enough. The final ingredient is mindset, setting intention and piercing through the target to reach your goal.
THE BOARD IS NOT YOUR GOAL
Breaking the board is also not your goal. Your goal is to laser-focus your intention to a spot well beyond the board and to throw a perfected strike to that spot. The board is just the “noise” in the way, the thing you need to pierce through.
This is why, in martial arts, we don’t strike at the board. We strike through it—toward a clearly defined point beyond the obstacle. The board is just a stand-in. A decoy. It looks like the target. It feels like the problem, but the real aim is behind it.
In creative work, the board is everything that stands between you and your real goal:
Overthinking.
Self-doubt.
The opinions of others.
The urge to make it perfect before it's even begun.
But if your strike stops at the board—if you’re still aiming at the wrong goal, or no goal at all—you won’t break through. You’ll bounce back. You’ll call it resistance or failure, but really, it’s just misalignment.
When your intention is set and your goal is sharp, the board is just noise… and noise only stops you if you let it.
It is the same for the goals in our lives.
This is not really about trying to overshoot your target. That is the mistake that can trip many of us up. We think the goal is hitting and breaking the board but that we must shoot further in order to make the break. We must release the idea of breaking the board as the goal.
Our goals in life are the spot we are aiming our strike to. It’s the “noise” in the way of our goal or target that is akin to the board. The noise, our fears, doubts, worries, obstacles and objections, is represented by the board. Learning to look beyond and strike through clean, hard, and fast to reach our intended target becomes a skill, and a lifelong tool to getting us where we want to go.
The first thing you have to do is to clearly define where it is you are striking to. You need to define your goal.
DEFINE YOUR GOAL, CLEARLY AND SIMPLY
Most misaligned effort doesn’t come from lack of trying. It comes from unclear goals—and not yet knowing yourself well enough to name what really matters.
You might think you need more motivation. More hustle. Often, what you actually need is definition.
Take this example:
Is your goal to lose ten pounds—or to be ten pounds lighter, sustainably?
Those sound similar, but they’re not. One is about temporary change. The other is about long-term identity. One requires a quick burst of discipline. The other asks for steady transformation. The goal you set determines not just what you do—but who you become in the process.
It’s the same with creative or professional ambitions. Are you trying to finish a project—or become someone who creates consistently? Are you trying to be recognized—or to do work that feels true to you, regardless of how it lands?
Knowing the answer requires self-awareness. It asks you to slow down, focus in, and name what you're really after—not what you think you should want.
When your goal is vague, your path will be scattered. When your goal is clear—and aligned with who you are—your effort becomes focused, almost like a laser, and things can begin to flow into place at a rapid clip.
Even when your goal is clear, the next challenge is knowing how to begin.
Sometimes you name what you want—and then freeze. Not because it’s wrong, but because it’s too big, too abstract, or too far away to act on right now.
If you know where you’re headed but don’t know what to do next, the answer might not be more effort. It might be a smaller goal.
Not a lesser one. A clearer one. Something visible, reachable, and actionable.
Big goals often need smaller goals to lead the way—stepping stones that make the path real. Not knowing how to start is one of the fastest ways to stall out.
Clarity isn’t just about defining the destination. It’s also about defining the first strike.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” —Lao Tzu
That first step doesn’t have to be dramatic, it just has to be specific. It has to move in the direction of what you actually want—not what you think you should want, or what looks good from the outside.
Properly defining the goal makes that first step visible. Once you see the step, you can take it.
KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE TARGET
In martial arts, you don’t just throw a strike—you look exactly where you want it to land. Your gaze leads your body. Your body follows your intention. This is why we train to “strike with the eyes first.” Where your attention goes, everything else flows.
The same is true for your goals. It’s not enough to set an intention once and hope it sticks. You have to keep it in sight—steady and bright like a North Star. In the chaos of daily life, your goal can get buried under to-do lists, distractions, doubt, and external noise. If you can see it clearly—like the center of a bullseye—it becomes the point you pierce through to.
This is where a simple image, word, or quote can become your anchor. A vision board, a sticky note on your mirror, a sketch or phrase scribbled in your sketchbook—anything that holds your intention clearly in view. It doesn’t need to be elaborate. It just needs to be true. A reminder of where you’re headed, especially when things get hard or noisy.
Because life will get noisy. That’s a given. But if your eye stays on the target—if your vision is rooted and visible—you won’t get thrown. You’ll keep moving toward it, one aligned strike at a time.
FLOW LIKE WATER, MOVE LIKE LIGHTNING
In my martial art, we never stand still. We don’t square off and wait. We circle. We flow. We move like water—fluid, aware, constantly adapting. This movement isn’t about chaos. It’s about maintaining energy and responsiveness, so we’re ready when the moment opens.
In fighting, when a target presents itself, it sometimes shows up like a flash—a glowing spot that screams here. Being in a state of flow, breathing calmly, allows us to see the opportunities when they shine for us.
However, that window doesn’t stay open for long. If you hesitate, it’s gone. Your mind will start to question, second-guess, doubt. That’s why we train the body to move faster than the fear.
Creatively, it’s no different. You might be circling an idea, not quite ready to strike. That’s okay. Flow is part of the process. When the opening shows—when the inspiration hits, when clarity arrives, when you feel that unmistakable pull—you have to trust it. You have to move. Not with panic, but with presence.
The more you train this—staying loose, staying alert, staying ready—the more you learn to respond with speed and grace. And eventually, you’ll move fast enough to outrun your hesitation, fast enough to act before your fears can talk you out of it.
PIERCING THROUGH
Martial arts isn't just about movement—it's about awareness. It's the discipline of knowing where you're going, staying adaptable in motion, and responding to the moment with presence and purpose.
That same rhythm exists in the creative life. You don’t need to push harder—you need to get clearer. You need to hold the vision of your goal steady enough that it becomes a through-line, something you can move toward even when things feel chaotic or uncertain.
Clarity doesn’t guarantee ease—but it does create momentum. It helps you act without hesitation when the moment opens. It gives you the inner alignment to move forward—not just to take action, but to take the right action. When you know your true aim, everything shifts. The distractions lose power. The fear gets quieter. And the path begins to emerge beneath your feet.
So ask yourself: What is the goal I need to pierce through to? Not the surface-level one. Not the loud one. The real one—the one that’s asking for your attention right now.
Find it, name it… and when the opening comes, move toward it with everything you’ve got. Only then will you pierce through to your true goal.