The Right to Change
Yes, this is about another conversation with my Sifu. Again, this is about me, once again, thinking of all those things I used to say. I mean, it is almost impossible to measure the amount of things I have had to come to reflect on and the changes I continue to experience as I keep developing my relationship with him. And once again, this is for you.
This past weekend we held our first official Moy Yat Moy Don Ving Tsun Kung Fu Work Camp in Tampa, Florida. The experience was powerful in many ways. Being surrounded by my Kung Fu brothers, training with intensity, and spending time with Sifu reminded me that this art is much more than movement. It is about constant refinement of mind, body, and spirit. As I watched, listened, and trained, I could not help but think back to one of the first lessons Sifu ever gave me, one that continues to shape how I approach not only Kung Fu but life itself.
I remember my Sifu saying something that quietly reshaped how I understood learning itself. He said, “If what you already know is right, you have the right to keep it, unless proven otherwise.” That sentence struck me deeply. It was not a demand to surrender what I knew; it was an invitation to truly test it. To not hold on to what felt right, but to hold on to what was right. It meant that what I believed could stand if it was built on truth, but if something greater revealed itself, I needed to be humble enough to accept it.
That is the heart of Kung Fu.
Confidence vs. Wisdom
People often confuse confidence with wisdom. Many of us would rather be right than find what is right. The difference sounds small, but it is enormous. Being right feeds the ego; finding what is right strengthens the spirit. And that is what my Sifu was showing me: the humility to stand corrected, the courage to let go of what is comfortable, and the faith to trust that truth always refines, never diminishes.
In Kung Fu, this lesson appears constantly. You train a technique for years, and one day your Sifu shows you a way to neutralize it completely. In that moment, everything you have trusted in your body feels wrong. There is a brief sting of disbelief, how could I have missed this? followed by a deeper recognition: this is how I grow.
That is cognitive dissonance, the internal conflict between what we believe and what we discover. It is uncomfortable. It shakes the foundation of who we think we are. But that discomfort is the very forge of transformation.
The Path of Mastery
Most people resist that feeling. They cling to what is familiar, even when it no longer serves them. They would rather feel unchallenged than uncertain. But in Kung Fu, and in life, true mastery only begins when you give yourself the right to change.
The right to change means you allow yourself to evolve without shame. It means that discovering you were wrong does not make you lesser; it makes you freer. It means you stop protecting your beliefs and start refining them.
Every time I have let go of something false, I have found something truer. Every time I have surrendered pride, I have gained understanding. That is the paradox of Kung Fu: it is not about domination over others, but mastery over self.
A Question for You
So I ask you: when was the last time you allowed yourself to be wrong? When was the last time you let truth, not comfort, be your teacher?
Because maybe the next level of your growth, your Kung Fu, your life, your peace, will not come from defending what you know, but from embracing the right to change.
Rafael González (Moy Don Xùn) has been teaching traditional Ving Tsun Kung Fu for over 30 years across Texas, Puerto Rico, and Connecticut. He is a disciple of Grandmaster Moy Don in the Moy Yat lineage.