Cognizant Engagement

I have been following the UBBT for a couple of years now and as a member of the 100 I have worked alongside the team members for a while. I have been pretty aware of the level of commitment that is required as a UBBT member and so I had no doubts that everything I have going on in my personal, professional, and kung fu life dictated quite decisively that tackling something like the UBBT was not a reasonable nor sane ambition.

For some reason August saw me contemplating the insane. I contacted Coach Tom and laid out the million and one reasons I had for not tackling this project at this time. I had expected him to either confirm my suspicions that my insane schedule would guarantee my failure or at the opposite end of the spectrum, for him to try and talk me into making the commitment. He did neither. He firmly put the responsibility for the decision in my lap. “There will never be the perfect time to take on something like this” and “The UBBT is not for everyone” were the two statements he made that had the biggest impact on me. Especially the second one, I guess I am more competitive and ego driven than I thought.

After consulting with Hal Gustin and much soul searching, I decided that Coach Tom was absolutely correct. There really is not a perfect time to take on something like the UBBT. Thirteen months is a long time to keep life from interfering with your well laid out plans. Of course something is going to go wrong in that time, why would I expect next year to be any different? The only difference next year will be that I will have another year of mediocrity under my belt and my age will have toggled up by one.

I am now two months into my requirements and anything that could go wrong probably has. My personal and professional lives have become more stressful than I thought possible and I have developed an undiagnosed problem with my legs that pretty much makes grappling, forms, and sparring an impossibility for the foreseeable future. If I could have seen this coming, I definitely would not have enrolled at this time and that would have been the biggest mistake of my life.

What I see now is that the more stressful my life is and the more insane the UBBT requirements are, the more I need this challenge. I have had injuries and setbacks throughout my martial arts career and every physical setback brings with it a correlating mental challenge and vice versa. However my current physical setback has had zero effect on my mental state and rather than pulling me back from my training, it has me even more engaged and cognizant of my progress. Despite the monkey wrenches, I have never been more excited about my kung fu and never more sure of the course that my life is on.

Ironically this has turned out to be the perfect time for me to tackle the UBBT. Luckily for me I happened to stumble into it for all the wrong reasons. Funny how things always work out.

“We choose to go not because it is easy, but because it is hard, because that goal will serve to measure and organize the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917 - 1963)

Mediocrity Loves Company

One aspect of human nature that I have never found easy to accept or understand is our tendency to resist accountability for our own mediocrity. People have no difficulty whatsoever in finding an excuse to not try or put in the effort to improve their situation and at the same time they will try to drag those around them into their pit of ordinariness to lessen their sense of shame and guilt.

I have had my share of students who were just not willing to do what it takes to bring their training up to a level that was conducive with acceptable progress. While some of them just drift away without a trace, some have attempted to convince others to join them in giving up. Regardless of how they choose to cease their training, I accept full responsibility for their decision. If I had taken more time to reach and inspire them perhaps they would have been able to carry on.

In fact I find myself losing sleep over most of my students who, for one reason or another, have chosen to end their training. When I think of everything kung fu has done for me and my life, I can’t help but wonder if the student I failed to inspire today may end up on a path of mediocrity that could have been avoided if only they would have stayed the course in their training. What if my original instructors had treated me with complete indifference such that I would not have chosen the path I did? I can’t imagine my life without my kung fu and everything it has helped me achieve.

On that note I know I am a very lucky man. I am blessed with twenty student UBBT members who have accepted to take this journey with me. The example some of them are setting, not only for the rest of my school but our entire community, is turning out to be nothing short of legendary. Life becomes effortless when one is surrounded by such positive examples of mastery.

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Action to Attitude

I have been thinking about something I read a couple of months ago that made a strong impression on me. After the death of one of my students, his parents gave me his personal journal to read and I was astounded by everything he had written. He was only twenty years old but the amount of thought he put into things completely defied his youth. Of everything he had written the statement that stands out the most for me was the entry he made after receiving his driver’s license. “My power grows” is how he put it. When I first read this I remember thinking that it was strange way of looking at his accomplishment but the more I pondered it the more profoundly wise the statement became.

What a wonderful way of looking at things. Isn’t it easier to discipline yourself to follow through with those little steps toward a goal if you stay cognizant of the difference they make in your life? All the scales I practiced on the piano were always perceived by me to be a necessary evil rather than a building block upon which I could expand my skill and ability. The hours my first instructor forced me to stand in a horse stance continue to serve me well and have allowed me to broaden my knowledge beyond what I had ever imagined, yet at the time I only saw it as a tool to test my resolve and commitment. How much easier would it have been for me if I would have altered my perspective to see it as an exercise that was actually expanding my power?

Our school’s Adopt-A-Driveway project is an excellent example of how our actions affect our attitudes and at the end of the day our attitudes have the greatest influence on the scope of our accomplishments. It definitely gives your sense of self worth a boost when you see the look of appreciation on the face of those senior citizens while they peer out their windows to watch us clear their sidewalks and driveways of snow.

A simple act can go a long way in making us more cognizant, engaged human beings whose power forever expands.

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” - Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

I Ate What?

I have been avoiding publicly journalling for the past week as my thoughts have been dominated by the current political situation in Canada. I was never a politically orientated person until I came to the conclusion that it is pretty much impossible to become an activist of value if one does not tackle social issues by holding their government responsible to represent their values.

Over the past couple of weeks Canada has been polarized by an attempt to oust the minority Conservative government by replacing it with a coalition government. With all the political maneuvering and rhetoric flying around, I have learned something: our ignorance can be used to manipulate us.

Stephen Harper used our lack of understanding of our parliamentary democracy to suggest that our system is plebiscitary and then proceeded to whip up a public frenzy by suggesting that if a coalition government was formed, our votes in the past election did not count. The only way my vote does not count is when my member of parliament votes according to his party’s guidelines as opposed to his constituents’ wishes.

What really dismays me is that the biggest argument against the coalition was that the government should be focusing on the current global economic crisis and not these political games. So why was the public not outraged when Stephen Harper proceeded to make our votes not count by proroguing parliament to avoid a non confidence vote? Now unless your MP is a member of cabinet, you have zero representation in government for the next six weeks. Good thing we are not facing an economic crisis.

All this being said, I am not saying I support the coalition. I am just saying that it is time our government start representing the people the way it was meant to. Let them stop relying upon our ignorance and our typical unwillingness to speak up, and start governing the way the system was designed to work.

I personally am disgusted by all the politicians in this country and I am even more disgusted by the general apathy and ignorance displayed by the citizens of this country. It is time we cared enough to take the time to become properly informed. This is one of the major reasons I am so passionate about instilling a sense of activism in those around me. This is the way to global change.

“There is nothing more frightful than an active ignorance.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)