Balance

This past month I have been reminded how difficult it is to maintain balance in your life. It is always a struggle to prioritize, or even recognize what should be your priority, when each aspect of your life is interwoven within the fabric of your life’s other aspects. At the end of the day, no matter what decisions you make, there are always consequences - both good and bad.
I have never been one to second guess my decisions, at least the decisions that have been made for the right reasons. Yes, I have made some spectacularly bad ones in my lifetime and hindsight is always a vicious undertaking but bad decisions for altruistic reasons happen and as such I accept them and move on.

What I have always had difficulty accepting is that no matter my motives for the decisions I make, there will always be people who will interpret them in the least favourable light. So the challenge for me is to keep my head up and carry on, if my conscience is clear, and not pull a David Brent by ensuring my decisions are not influenced by the pursuit of popularity but rather by what I truly believe.

“Popularity is not leadership.” - Richard Marcinko (b. 1940)

Work In Progress

I’m over halfway through my second consecutive UBBT and I’ve had my share of ups and my share of downs. Obviously the ups are what everyone wants but I find it is the downs that really define the challenge. My ability to adapt and continue to progress in spite of what obstacles are thrown my way has given me the confidence and drive to pursue mastery every day and in every situation.

The perpetual injury situation isn’t anything new for me nor is it unusual for someone as active as I am. It definitely makes me feel the challenge and I learn something new about myself everyday.

My goals continue to evolve as I develop new skills and master old ones. I am happy to say the UBBT process has permeated my entire life.

“The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water moulds itself to the pitcher” - Chinese Proverb

Lost and Found

I know of a man who lived his life as if time was endless. Tomorrow was always in the horizon carrying the promise of possibility so that accountability for today never existed. He was oblivious of what he consumed and treated the earth as if her resources were infinite. Years had passed before clarity was found and with it came an awareness of lost opportunities, the preciousness of time, and the miracle of life. Each day is a gift and if each moment is lived as such, life becomes effortless.

“Our days are numbered. One of the primary goals in our lives should be to prepare for our last day. The legacy we leave is not just in our possessions, but in the quality of our lives. What preparations should we be making now? The greatest waste in all of our earth, which cannot be recycled or reclaimed, is our waste of the time that God has given us each day.” - Billy Graham (b. 1918)

Progress

I’m halfway through my second consecutive UBBT and as some of my students approach their black belt grading, I have been reflecting upon the value of the UBBT process. The relentless march of time is something we do not have any control over but we do have 100% authority over what we do with our time.

I shudder when I think about the amount of time I have wasted over the past twenty years - always waiting for significant ‘free’ time to apply to my kung fu. Raising my children and running my business all while working a full time job, pretty much guarantees the term ‘significant free time’ will never apply to me. The power of incremental progression has become the lynchpin in my training regime.

Over the past couple of years I have been able to annex over two hours a day to apply to my kung fu. A schedule like mine only provides for snippets of free time several times throughout the day but by applying myself consistently during these seemingly insignificant intermittent intervals, I end every day several steps closer to achieving mastery.

My daily meditation regime continues to be an integral part of my training success. Meditating gives my mind the focus to recognize the multitude of opportunities as they present themselves that allow me to progress incrementally everyday. After a couple of years of small daily progress, I have achieved significant improvement in areas that have been stagnant for a long time.

If only I had applied myself this way twenty years ago....

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” - Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

Process of Mastery

"What mastery might be is our ability to deal with life while improving our self in the process. It might be in balance and making it through the obstacles --and STILL come out ahead." - Tom Callos

With those words and our ensuing conversation, Tom Callos convinced me to enroll in the Ultimate Black Belt Test. My life was as hectic as ever and taking on a challenge like the UBBT seemed insane to me at the time. I am now in the middle of my second UBBT and have already enrolled in my third. I have kept our conversation in front of me for the past couple of years and his words have helped me maintain my perspective through many challenges.

Whatever challenges I face in life, I am confident that if I cannot control the outcome I will adapt and ultimately come through the other side better and stronger than ever.

“How long should you try? Until.” - Jim Rohn (1930 - 2009)

Walking Meditation

One of the most intensely spiritual and solitary moments I have ever experienced was shared in the Colorado Rockies during walking meditation with a few hundred other people last year at Thich Nhat Hanh’s Zen retreat. I spend so much of my day surrounded by the commotion of life that it is easy to lose awareness of myself, life’s miracle, and the integral part I play in the collective.

Walking meditation was a real challenge for me when I first started practicing it. It is difficult to stay in the moment when there are so many distractions clambering for my attention. However when the experience is shared with others (the more the merrier), there is the added power of a collaborative effort.

In walking meditation I practice being aware of the number of steps I take with each breath. The trick is to match the steps with the breath, not the other way around. This awareness goes a long way in keeping me in the moment so that I am walking without arriving, just experiencing the moment and enjoying the walking with no particular aim or destination.

“The mind can go in a thousand directions. But on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, a gentle wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.”
- Thich Nhat Hanh (b. 1926)

Cha-Ching!

Canada is preparing to host the G8 and G20 summits. Stephen Harper has gone on record in the past justifying the purpose of the summit as a way to address global issues like poverty and climate change. Yet Harper has decided to purposely leave climate change off the main agenda while spending over a billion dollars on expenses to host the conference. Not sure how that fits in his plan for addressing world poverty but that expense is obscene when you consider the economic challenges facing non G8 countries.

When I was growing up, I was led to believe that democracy and capitalism were one in the same. It was implied that there were two basic systems - communism and capitalism. Communism was what was happening in the USSR - suppression of human rights within a totalitarian state, and capitalism was what we had in Canada - freedom and a democratic form of government. The world was different back then. The iron curtain still existed and the cold war was one of the biggest threats facing the planet. So now that the iron curtain no longer exists, why do we allow our government to continue to conduct their affairs as if capitalism is equated with freedom? The way the west practices capitalism has very little to do with equality, freedom, or human rights. It is all about money, money, and money. As long as we continue to equate money with happiness, we’ll continue to work harder and harder while spending more and more on products that exploit people and resources in countries we don’t like to think about.

So let’s all drive our SUVs to rallies to protest the oil companies that continue to harvest high risk oil. We all need to look in the mirror if we want things to change.

“The time will come when it will disgust you to look in the mirror.” - Rose F. Kennedy (1890 - 1995)