I Am Project - Proactive

I have twenty student members participating in the Ultimate Black Belt Test with me. While they were free to choose their own personal requirements, there were two requirements that I made compulsory for them if they wished to be a part of the program - a weekly public journal, and the no quitting requirement.

As a team, I have been immensely proud of their journalling efforts. Their insights into themselves and their journey have inspired and motivated me throughout my own personal journey. However with any team effort there are always leaders and there are coattail riders.

I had to question certain members of my team this week as to whether or not they have chosen to quit, despite their no quitting requirement. The fact that I had to ask that question speaks volumes. The UBBT is a public journey and if your own team member can’t tell whether or not you are even participating anymore, obviously you are not keeping your test public through your physical efforts or your journalling efforts. If your teammate has asked you this question and you have not quit, you must ask yourself if your actions are matching your words.

While I have struggled with leg problems since November, I have not struggled with my motivation or passion for the UBBT. I have been very proactive in ensuring I stay engaged in my training and thus even though I am behind on certain physical requirements because of my leg issues, I am staying on track. As Coach Tom said to me last week, I am adapting.

Looking forward to the Live Like a Champion Project in 2010!

“If you're proactive, you don't have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own. " - Stephen R. Covey (b. 1932)

I Am Project - Participating

I had a conversation with my mom earlier in the week that has really got me thinking about some things.

If governments of the past were able to run the country without income tax revenue, why does our current government feel it is so necessary to reduce social funding and implement privatization while promoting their free market model? Income tax was implemented to help pay for the war and to create social programs to assist those who had their butts kicked by the great depression. Yet today we all seem to accept these social cutbacks without questioning where all the tax revenue is going. Is it not ironic that the money temporarily collected to pay for the debts and social consequences of one war is being used to fight another war at the expense of social programs almost a century later? What about the massive spending our government justifies for private consultants to complete studies and produce white papers on behalf of the government when the majority of the Members of Parliament, whose job it is to run our government and make decisions that best reflect their constituents’ wishes, sit impotent and forced to cater to the will of their party leader? Why are we not questioning these things?

With so many people on the planet going to bed hungry each night, why are we pursuing bio fuels that affect the food supply and at the same time continue to promote environmentally unsound practices? Why does it not occur to us to reduce our consumption rather than search for alternatives that will allow us to continue our unsustainable lifestyles?

If a black belt is supposed to epitomize discipline while setting an example for others to follow, why do so many of us not honour our commitments? The UBBT is a very public endeavour and thus if we fail, our failure is very public. What value are we bringing to the world if we are not taking our own responsibilities and commitments seriously? Who are we inspiring by our public failure?

When I am participating I am truly engaged and mindful of my progress. When I am participating I not only accept my potential in promoting change but I hold myself accountable for the state of the world around me. When I am participating I become a voice of reason in a world of chaos and I provide an alternative to mediocrity and apathy. When I am participating I am a black belt.

“There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.” - Art Turock

I Am Project - A Leader

I have been thinking a lot lately about the concept of leadership. I’ve spent the majority of my life enabling people to become leaders through the principles of empowerment like self realization, empathy, and accountability via kung fu. As a teacher it is impossible not to have your chest swell with pride when a student is excelling in all aspects of her life because she has learned to apply excellence in all her endeavours.

Empowerment is really, well, empowering. Once you have mastered it, it can become easy to take it for granted. The most difficult task I face as a teacher is keeping my students, especially the younger ones, cognizant of everything that goes with empowerment, especially the gift of influence. While studying the martial arts empowers us in all aspects of our lives, our studies only give us the tools of leadership. To apply these tools requires you to have a voice that is heard. This is why the gift of influence is something to be cherished and should never be taken for granted.

Learning kung fu has allowed me to excel in all facets of my life and has given me the opportunity to develop my voice and my passion while instilling a sense of responsibility in me that compels me to take action wherever I can make a difference. However, teaching kung fu has given my passion a voice and has given me the opportunity of influence so that I have the insight and confidence to recognize that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, going on in this world that is immune to my influence.

“Be around the people you want to be like, because you will be like the people you are around.” - Sam Reichle (b. 1979)

I Am Project - Meditative

It is easy for me to lose sight of what is important when I become too overwhelmed with my schedule. I have been very lucky to have the UBBT to keep me grounded and engaged in my training. So much so that I have already enrolled in the Live Like a Champion Project for 2010.

I am just finishing the best week I have had for a long time. I have not accomplished anything spectacular, nor has anything overly interesting come my way. The week has been all about the important things that happen when I am meditative and appreciative of the here and now. Simple things like the beauty of the moon as seen through an open window, flying a kite in a clear blue sky, sharing a moment of clarity and innocence with a child, laughing at the funniest training mishap story I have ever heard, experiencing the serenity of my fish pond, listening to Handel’s Passacaglia, or just absorbing myself with the one I am with.

When I am meditative all is well.

“Meditation is the tongue of our soul and the language of our spirit.”
- Jeremy Taylor (1613 - 1667)

I Am Project - Conscious

As Stephen Harper fights a Federal Court judge’s ruling that he must “comply with a principle of fundamental justice” and press the United States for the return of Omar Khadr to Canada from Guantanamo Bay, I am left flabbergasted by many Canadians’ reactions and in many cases, lack of reactions. It is a dangerous path we tread if we allow our Prime Minister to decide which of his citizens deserve the rights guaranteed by their passport and which do not. Even if you ignore the fact that Omar Khadr would be considered a child soldier VICTIM in any other war, allowing him to remain beyond the seven years he has already been held without a trial should be something every Canadian should oppose with all their might. What have all our soldiers died for in Afghanistan if not for our freedoms and rights? What about the torture that has allegedly been inflicted upon a fellow Canadian citizen? When we start ignoring our rights and values in a war that is supposedly being justified in the name of those rights and values, have we not lost our way?

I often wonder if our leaders are even conscious of what the wars are really about. At times it feels like the post 911 conflicts are more about revenge and testosterone fueled posturing than the protection of freedoms and homeland security. From my perspective Canada is much less secure since we became involved in Afghanistan than before. At the end of the day does anyone really think invading someone else’s homeland is going promote long lasting friendship between two nations? Do we really not think the hatred we are currently creating is not going to be passed from father to son and mother to daughter for many generations to come? We are quite possibly creating the foundation for a future retaliation against our citizens who are yet to be born. They literally will be inheriting a conflict whose initiators will have long since passed on. When is it going to stop?

By staying conscious of the diversity that exists between two cultures, perhaps we can learn to reflect as opposed to react and quite possibly learn that the gap between two points of view is only reduced through communication, not a bullet.

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity." - Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)

I Am Project - Resourceful

While the world continues to react to the global financial crisis, I can’t help but notice the incredibly improvident decisions our leaders continue to make in shortsighted attempts to stimulate the economy while limiting their deficits. Our society’s rate of consumption has been at a completely unsustainable level for years while our environment has been continually raped to fuel yet more economic growth. So many of us were oblivious to what was happening as long as we were making a buck. Now that reality has set in and this house of cards our whole economic system has been based upon has collapsed, we seem determined to reestablish this illusion of prosperity rather than learning from our mistakes. We need leaders with vision who are resourceful enough to use this crisis as an opportunity to retool and rebuild our economic strategy into something sane and sustainable that ensures our species is viable over the long term.

So much has happened over the past couple of years that has convinced me that Ed Stelmach and his provincial government is totally clueless as to how to proceed. On one hand they have been completely uninterested in addressing the ecological disaster perpetuated in the oil sands because of the revenue these projects generate, and on the other hand they are frantically spending money and effort in an attempt to convince the Americans that our oil is not dirty and that we care about the environment.

It is projected that by 2030, between 32 and 86 percent of the Alberta government’s income will be dedicated to funding healthcare. It is a proven fact that prevention is much more economical than treatment so you would think promoting a healthy lifestyle would be a strategy the government should invest in. Yet when this economic crisis hit, after the ruling party gave itself a 30% pay increase, Ed Stelmach has cut back chiropractic funding and is talking about cutbacks to healthcare wages. The biggest cost in healthcare is salaries and the biggest cost in salaries is sick time and overtime. Wouldn’t it be more resourceful of the government to actually increase funding for chiropractic and other preventative treatments so that sick time is reduced in the work force and thus so is overtime?

I have found that when I am resourceful, I see opportunity within crisis and am able to grow and evolve even in the most challenging of situations.

“The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life” - Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)

I Am Project - Quiet

The past few months have been interesting, eventful, and never boring. The stresses of my personal, professional, and business lives have all converged to form the perfect storm. The racket of the franticness that has surrounded me has been building into a cacophonous symphony of agitation.

I recognize the need to quiet down this growing frenzy. If I can quiet the noise that is pulling me in every direction at once, I can focus on the tasks necessary to permanently reduce the commotion that is surrounding me. When I am quiet I can see things for what they are and recognize that there are some I cannot change. Rather than continuing to try and control these things, I must eliminate their influence.

“A quiet mind cureth all.” - Robert Burton (1577 - 1640)