Succession Planning

I had the opportunity to attend the Ging Wu Chinese New Year banquet yesterday. It was my first opportunity to attend after a long absence. Grandmaster Stan Lee was a great influence in my life and I will always appreciate and value everything he did for me. It is important to me to respect his legacy and support the organization that he built.

It struck me last night how much the martial arts community in Alberta has changed. The core group of instructors are getting up there in age and it is a little unsettling to think about where things may be in twenty years. Alberta has produced some of the top instructors in the country and I have been blessed to have trained with and under most of them. I hope everyone has a succession plan in place to ensure their legacy is preserved. Moreover, I hope whoever ultimately steps up to fill the void, do their predecessors’ legacies proud.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more and  become more, you are a leader.” - John Quincy Adams (1767 - 1848)

Truth

There are days where the journalling is more difficult than others. Today is one of those days. I try to keep my journal focused on gratitude and mindfulness but today it is proving difficult for me to put aside the righteous rage that can overpower me when mindfulness exposes things that should shame us all. Poverty and war fill the news while I live my life in coddled isolation, almost oblivious to that harsh reality, shielded by my birthright.

One of my favourite quotes from Bruce Lee helps ground me on my rage days.

“Truth has no path. Truth is living and, therefore, changing. Awareness is without choice, without demand, without anxiety; in that state of mind, there is perception. To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. Awareness has no frontier; it is giving of your whole being, without exclusion.” - Bruce Lee (1940 - 1973)

Wu Wei

Wu wei is a concept of kung fu that I constantly remind myself to apply and this past year it has been especially challenging to keep it in front of me. The idea of non-striving (wu wei) is an elegant ideal that becomes easier if I keep myself in the moment. Staying in the moment I tend to just experience and go with the flow. There is much clarity to be found when I don’t have an overt agenda.

I find it ironic that a state of wu wei eludes me when I probably need it the most. When it comes to personal relationships I find it very difficult to let go when there is a conflict. I like to think that because I do not make close friends easily, I fight hard to keep these friends close even when it is evident that they are not of the same thinking. I also like to think that I hold myself 100% accountable for my situation so it is up to me to take the initiative in resolving my relationships. Those are both grounds I’d like to believe but I suspect the reason is far less altruistic. I have a feeling that my ego can’t deal with the fact that someone just does not value our relationship to the same degree as I do.

One thing I cannot deny or ignore is that the only guarantee in life is change. Everything is impermanent and I never forget that. I reflect upon this fact every day to help keep me grounded and stay in the moment. I recognize how I struggle to accept the impermanence of my relationships. I will only achieve a state of wu wei in personal conflict if I remove my ego and accept that the relationship has changed.

“The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.” - Nathaniel Branden (b. 1930)

Hours In a Day

So if I plan on dedicating myself to something to the tune of two hours a week, how does that play out over a year?

2 hours/week X 52 weeks/year = 104 hours/year dedicated to my chosen endeavour. Given that there are 24 hours in a day, that presents me with a total of 4.3 days of dedication.

One thing I know for sure is life is going to throw some challenges my way that are going to lay waste to my best laid plans. If I have a great year and almost everything goes as planned,  I estimate my best case scenario would be to achieve an 80% success rate. That gives me, best case, 3.5 days a year dedicated to whatever I choose. Basically that means if I start now and go straight through without sleep and breaks, I can get in all the practice I am going to get in, for the entire year, by Wednesday at 10pm.

Given that a year’s worth of dedication is only Wednesday away, is anything impossible to achieve?

“We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is.” - Arnold Bennett (1867 - 1931)