Control

I tell all my students that a black belt has to be a control freak. I’m not talking about controlling others, just controlling yourself. If I am in control, then I am responsible. The perspective of responsibility empowers me to change what needs to be changed and achieve anything I want to achieve.

Controlling inner dialogue is Important. My thoughts are always trying to betray me. It’s not natural to stay in a horse stance until exhaustion. We’re psychologically and physiologically built to conserve energy. Instinctually it is wise to keep a little something in the gas tank just in case a predator comes over that hill. Most of us are living at the top of the food chain but the survival instinct perseveres regardless.

Staying aware of those inner thoughts and recognizing them allows me to deal with them as they come up and control them. This allows me to make positive choices. I always have an excess of excuses to take it easy and set tomorrow up as the day that I am going to really buckle down and make things happen. Whether or not I choose to succumb to allowing an excuse to dictate my course of action is an indication of my level of control.

For me structure is the key. When I have structure in place, inner dialogue has less of a voice. I don’t really have to analyze, I just have to do. Structure is self perpetuating. The more you follow it, the easier it gets.

“You can not always control circumstances, but you can control your own thoughts.” - Charles Popplestown

Pandamonium Version 2.0

On May 5th, we will be conducting our annual fundraiser called the Pandamonium. Silent River KUNG FU PANDAmonium - get it? We’re making some massive changes this year that I know will make this project more vibrant. We’re combining our intra-school tournament with our 24 hour forms marathon and our Pandamonium fundraiser into a single event under the Pandamonium banner. This will be a 24 hour sweat fest of perpetual kung fu that will help us raise funds and awareness for several charitable initiatives.

The changes we are making this year will definitely pose some challenges. Our annual fundraiser has been running every November for the past ten years. November has always been a difficult time of year to raise funds because most potential sponsor’s generosity has already been maxed out by the local elementary school fundraisers that run that time of year too. Moving our Pandamonium from November to May makes a lot of sense but we recognize that this change will present a significant perception challenge. We just finished collecting the final funds from last November’s Pandamonium less than two months ago and now we’re gearing up for our next fundraiser. It will be very difficult to get everyone to support this project if we don’t keep the purpose of the Pandamonium clearly defined.

The Pandamonium is a major component of our curriculum that helps us teach empathy. We spend hours every week in the kwoon training hard, honing our skill, and  building our strength and our self esteem. The development of empathy is crucial to ensure this newfound skill and power is tempered with compassion and control.

The purpose of the Pandamonium is to teach empathy. The fundraising aspect of the project is only a tool to help us achieve the goal of teaching empathy. Sometimes we become so focused upon the tools in front of us that we forget what the tools are actually for. Reducing a project like this to be about fundraising and forgetting its ultimate purpose makes it very difficult to commit to the project.

I recognize that the vast majority of my students may not keep the big picture in front of them. Many parents carry out the fundraising on behalf of their kids and just hand in the funds at the end of the project and that is that. They take care of the fundraising but fail to take advantage of the opportunity the project offered them to have the dialogue with their children to impart the importance of activism and community service. They are not taking advantage of this opportunity to empower their children by reminding them that they have the power to change the world by being the change they want to see.

The Pandamonium is an integral part of our curriculum. As with all aspects of my school’s curriculum, I can’t completely control how a student actually applies themselves to the lessons I am teaching,  I can only provide the tools and inspiration. Hopefully my team’s passion for this project, and the purpose it serves, will help this transition from November to May to be perceived as a positive change by my school body through the dialogue it promotes.

“A determined soul will do more with a rusty monkey wrench than a loafer will accomplish with all the tools in a machine shop.” - Robert Hughes (b. 1938)

Clarence Benjamin Jones

I stumbled across an interview with Clarence Benjamin Jones on the BBC this week. Listening to him describe his experiences as Martin Luther King’s legal and personal counsel was fascinating.

Clarence Jones first met Martin Luther King when King personally visited Jones’ home in California to convince him to become part of his legal team. Surprisingly, Jones turned King down. After King left, Jones received an invitation from one of King’s aides to attend the upcoming service at a local church where Martin Luther King was to be the guest preacher.  Jones accepted the invitation and found King to be much more charismatic in that venue than he had been in his living room. Not only did King direct a big part of his sermon directly, but anonymously, at Clarence Jones, by the end of his sermon Jones was convinced to become part of Martin Luther King’s legal council.

What struck me about this Clarence Jones interview is how different his life would have been if he had not attended that sermon. He would never have become part of King’s counsel, nor would he have helped write King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. The world would be a different place.

Life is full of opportunity. Some opportunities are exploited while others are ignored. While it is easy to see what comes of opportunities taken, it is more difficult to realize the consequences of opportunities missed.

“Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.” - Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922)

Oh Canada

Training in kung fu presents certain unique challenges. Chinese hand forms tend to be fairly lengthly and they cover quite a bit of real estate. Finding a location outside your kwoon that gives you enough space to complete an entire form uninterrupted is almost impossible. Most of us break our forms down into segments for practice at home and piece them back together when we return to class. Weapon forms exasperate the issue, and in most cases, are impossible to practice indoors safely.

This brings up the unique challenges a person faces when practicing the martial arts in a northern climate. At our latitude, the climate can force us to keep our training indoors for seven months of the year. That’s a long time to be away from your weapon practice. During the deep freeze intervals when the temperature drops below -30 degrees centigrade, any outdoor cardio exertion is impossible without the cold, dry air damaging your lungs.

I do believe these unique challenges give us the opportunity to become better martial artists. Overcoming the limitations of the short daylight hours and extreme weather in the winter help us prepare for the other inevitable pitfalls that end up crossing our paths.  Like any other challenge that falls your way, it’s how you choose to react to the challenge that determines whether or not you will come out ahead for it.

“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are." - Bernice Johnson Reagon (b. 1942)

Incremental Progression

The Sihing Class I ran on Friday reminded me of the key role incremental progression plays in mastery. There are no shortcuts, the harder you work the more you will progress. An hour of practice can produce great results but finding an interrupted hour for mindful practice can sometimes be the single most challenging aspect of mastery. Fortunately, it is almost impossible not to be able to find ten uninterrupted minutes a day over six days to apply to mastery. As I continue to tell my students - if you can’t spare ten minutes a day to kung fu, I’ll show you how to set your alarm clock to go off ten minutes earlier. Any limits to how we apply ourselves to our training are in between our ears.

My Sihing students were exposed to a sample nine minutes of the future final twelve hours of their black belt grading on Friday. It was not only an eye opening experience for them but one for me as well. These past five months I have been spending the majority of my time honing the skills of my five candidates who were promoted to black belt at our Chinese New Year Banquet. Seeing my current Sihing class mentally breaking down over those nine intense minutes brought into focus how far my last five candidates developed over their grading year. I definitely get spoiled working so closely with a group whose focus was narrowed upon achieving mastery. It is very inspiring and motivating to be reminded how far one can progress when they dedicate a portion of every day toward their goals.

Incremental progression is the key.

“Success is steady progress toward one’s personal goals.” - Jim Rohn (1930 - 2009)

Toys in Space

I find this story unbelievably inspiring because as a kid I worked on a project to put a toy into orbit. I came up with many designs and the ultimate design may or may not have ( if I was a betting man I would say not have) achieved orbit. The technology available to me back then precluded me from ever recovering my rocket or proving it’s ultimate destination.

What I find so inspiring about this story is that these two teenagers not only dared to dream, they followed through. They did the research, they invested the time, and they ultimately achieved exactly what they set out to do - first try. Just goes to show that if you take a well thought out plan and couple it with good old follow through, anything is possible.

Thank you Mathew and Asad. You guys made my year.

“We didn’t really believe we could do it until we did.”- Mathew Ho (b. 1995)

Be Bold and Proceed

This is the time of year my students tend to become inspired an motivated to refocus, retool, and begin their drive for black belt. Nothing like seeing a few of their peers get promoted to light the old fire.

I will be meeting with a few of my students this week to help them get on track to achieve their goals over the next couple of years. Any plan we come up with will still come down to their ability to follow through. Actions, not thoughts, produce results. No matter where you’re at, no matter where you want to go, the journey begins with just a single step. Overcoming the inertia of inaction can be a formidable task and anyone who takes that initial step gets my respect.

“If you’re going to do this you gotta pack your bags, kiss your wife goodbye, and go to war.”- Samuel Mockbee (1944 - 2001)