A Good Day

I left our annual boot camp yesterday inspired and proud. Sixteen hours of sweat, endurance, and comaraderie can be the life-altering experience that becomes the catalyst that ignites the spark that defines a life.

The boot camp is focused at challenging and inspiring. Pushing yourself beyond your arbitrary limits is the only way to eliminate mediocrity and make mastery a part of daily practice. Illness and injury are limits that are not arbitrary but how we respond to them often is. It all comes down to participation and engagement. Mastery is a relentless pursuit and anyone devoted to it understands that 99% of it is just a matter of showing up.

I was fortunate to be part of something extraordinary yesterday. It is an anchor experience that will colour my motivation and training forever.

“Don’t wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.” - Orison Swett Marden (1850 - 1924)

Patience, Trust, & Progressing Wisely

Something I have thought about a lot over the years is why the rank of black belt is so difficult to attain. I don’t mean difficult as in physically difficult but difficult as in hardly anyone who sets out to achieve it actually does. I am convinced the issue is approach. The approach I am referring to is all or nothing. Our western culture is based upon consumption and instant gratification. We want what we want and we want it now.

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked what I thought of weight training when it comes to kung fu. My intended reply was that weight training to build strength is one thing but training to build bulk is another. Bulk interferes with natural motion and thus it interferes with kung fu. My student’s all or nothing response to my answer was a reminder of why westerners have so much difficulty with the martial arts.

An all or nothing, quick fix approach forces a person to choose between two incompatible activities. Kung fu or weight training for bulk. An approach with wuji (balanced, without extremes) allows the pursuit of both disciplines with the understanding that mastery in kung fu will take longer. Either approach has consequences but one is more sustainable than the other.

The benefits one experiences from a lifestyle change are only there as long as the changed lifestyle is maintained. For example, if you want to lose weight, and keep it off, whatever you do to lose that weight must be maintained for the rest of your life if you wish to keep the weight off. Kung fu is no different. Never sacrifice something over the short term if you are not willing to sacrifice it over the long term. Sustainable practice is the key. If you enjoy weight training for bulk, you do not need to eliminate it to master kung fu. You can have your cake and eat it too, it just takes longer.

You have the rest of your life to train and your practice can enhance your lifestyle without limiting it.

“He that can have Patience, can have what he will.” - Benjamin Franklin (1708 - 1790)

Sixteen Years

Time is relative. Obviously. Yet it may not be so obvious. I have been thinking about what time represents and more specifically what sixteen years represent.

Sixteen years is the required age for acquiring a driver’s licence. I know it was a lifetime for me to get to that age. I have vivid memories of daring deeds and experiences all accumulated before I was eligible to drive.

When my daughters were born, it was a lifetime before I had to worry about them dating or driving. Again, many vivid memories of their life milestones over their first sixteen years.

The squirrel chattering at me while I write this was not around sixteen years ago, nor will he be around sixteen years from now.

Sixteen years ago I mortgaged my house to get a permanent home for Silent River Kung Fu. I look at photos from those first few weeks while we worked to turn two empty bays into a unified training space, and cannot help but smile at our naivety. There’s Sifu Hayes and I grinning from ear to ear while we grouted the tile that we had carefully laid throughout the building only to have to jackhammer it all out a couple of days later. There’s the memory of crushing the main water line during those first renovations but somehow managing not to puncture it. We had no expertise but we all shared a vision.

While the memories of our initial construction exploits remain vivid, they seem to come from two lifetimes ago. So much has happened in the past sixteen years. The kwoon has expanded, along with the mortgage, and the spirit and love of a whole new generation of martial artists is embedded within its walls.

Sixteen years. Seems like a lifetime when you are a kid. Seems like a lifetime if you are paying off a mortgage. A lot can happen in a sixteen year time period, but most of us only have five of those in our lifetime.

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

Anchor Experiences

Life is hectic. The faster the pace of my surroundings, the more hectic my state of mind. It is a constant battle to adapt my environment to my rhythm and resist the pull to join the pace of the rat race. The vividness of the memory of many amazing moments have been lost because I have not been in the proper state of mind to mindfully experience the moment. Without proper reverence for the present, a memory’s grip is fragile, making it difficult to keep. Some days I am more successful than others but that is why it is called a practice. There is value in perpetual effort despite knowing that complete achievement is impossible.

My I Ho Chuan team had a great Canada Day this year. We spent most of the day with each other, performing, laughing, and sharing the experience. A spontaneous demo and experiencing the joy of new Canadians receiving their citizenships made the day one I will never forget. I consider that day seized.

“The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds.”- Tyron Edwards (1809 - 1894)