The Cards your Dealt

This last while has been interesting and frustrating as a whole. I'm at one of those jagged peaks and valleys with water at the bottom of each, mud slides, and white out snow storms at the peaks. It can grate on you and leave you wondering what's next. This approach however will get you nowhere and it only stops you if you let it. Some where down the path is grassy fields and sunshine, you just have to aim for it and go.

The last few weeks has been taking care of a situation at home that is close to the heart and scary all at once. Moving ahead and adapting has brought that to an almost resolved state. A new job has been moving along not so well. Politics, weather, and a roll of the dice on what hours or days your working leaves your ability to commit to things pretty much impossible. One minute we are working day shift, next night shift, next tomorrow, next maybe over the course of the weekend, next off.... you get the picture.

Next issue, injury. A couple of days ago I was carrying something heavy and my foot slipped on the ice resulting in me jarring my lower back. This has pretty much halted all my physical training. Insert machine gun of profanity here. It's one of those back injurys that no matter what you do, pain will be involved in

So what now. Adapt and prevail. First things first, you can't control what happens around you, but you can control how you deal with things. Work, well it is what it is. Whatever shift or day I am working there is always the opportunity to get to the kwoon now that I am working at home. Morning classes, evening classes, open training, contact someone that has a key, train at home and utilize that training opportunity. This is easy to do if you want to actually do it. My attention and focus lately has been all put into my personal life, but along the way I managed to get in some form reps and training. Not as much as I wanted too but something. Incremental progress. I know the minute I let this slip, I will be right back to square one. Next came the injury, physical training is not an option at the moment. So I need to move onto the mental area of my training. I have to see this as an opportunity to use the down time to focus on planning, research ways to help heal quicker and what I need to work on to maintain a stronger body. I started segregating the curriculumn into what I know, what I don't know. What is going to take more time to relearn and what will be replenished in a quick review, write it down. What form needs work and where are my trouble zones, write it down. Sort out my training reps, what area needs more and which one needs less, write it down. Go through my theory and write down the ones I don't feel confident with my answer and put it on the web site. Write down and plan a balanced workout that will coincide with my monthly goals and keep my muscles strong around my joints and spine. Try to keep moving and start training again listening to my body along the way. Sitting completely still I think does more harm than good.

That's pretty much what's going on with me lately. I know right now the timing is bad but my back is starting to loosen up and my mobility is improving daily so thats a good thing. Just like seeing all things, good or bad, as an opportunity to make something better. It will only bring you down if you let it. See you at the kwoon

Year of the Challenges

It was a pretty crazy for me this year with numerous physical, mental, and occupational challenges. Family life took a beating, responsibilities on so many fronts waiting for me the minute I stepped off the plane and got home and then back to a very challenging project. Family tragedies, and not to mention going off the rails numerous times on the training locomotive. I felt loaded way beyond my physical and mental capacities too many times to count. I had people counting on me to be a leader, a family counting on me to be a man, a father. Teachers and people of support counting on me to come through on my commitments. I felt like everything in my life wanted to fight, one big circle of a beating was brewing. I say @#$* em! Bring it on, I'll fight until I can't. Once the smoke cleared a little and things began to get sorted out, life carried on as it always does.

 I felt like a complete let down a few times and other times I felt like a damn king. The low. Not grading this past year was a kick in the stomach indeed and I really didn't like how I had to tell the school that I wasn't going too. Over an email. To me certain things should be done face to face, and that was one of those things. For that I am sorry. But as most of you know where I was at the time that was pretty much the only option I had. One of the other things that I didn't particularly like was the public intentions that were never followed through. You can have the best intentions and ideas in the world, but if they aren't followed through, they are nothing but lip service. This is where I learned the importance of structure and the absolute necessity of segregating Kung Fu training to "my" time and no one else's. I tend to let things toss me around sometimes and rather than let go and reset, I hang on and fight it. I need to alter this approach for sure.

The high was applying my Kung Fu to all aspects of my life and every single challenge that came at me and prevailed. Kung Fu has taught me to see all things as opportunity's or to discover the answer to any problem or situation by seeing the balance of everything. Every single thing has a balance, and every problem has a solution. The only way to succeed through anything is too keep a clear head and clear mind. Kung Fu has taught me to be adaptable and has helped me hone this skill on so many fronts and for that I am truly grateful. The other part was witnessing some amazing accomplishments of my team mates, good job to you all. All I can say is wow, that is just way cool! Other areas are all the things I did accomplish and I even feel quite good about the fails, because you learn when you fail and that makes you that much better overall.

There are many great things the I Ho Chuan has done for me this year. It has helped me discover and strengthen my weaknesses and amplify my strong points through engagement. I have come out of my comfort zone in a lot of ways and despite my absence I felt connected and engaged to the team. I hope somewhere along the way I have given something back to my team mates as they have given me so much support. Thanks to you all that helped me so much.  I now fully understand the importance of blogging and recording progress and fails. I set out to try to remain involved through my absence by publically recording numbers and sending videos of blogs and form work. This is something I will continue to use, because it works, and because that is what I said I was going to do back in July when I left for Yellowknife.
Looking forward to the year of the sheep and training with some new and old faces soon. See you at the Kwoon.

Stage 1

I feel the only way for me to accomplish what I am set to do for the remainder of the year and beginning a new year in the I Ho Chuan is to maintain public numbers. Throughout  the year this really helped to keep me not only accountable but engaged in the process of the I Ho Chuan, and from what I have seen it worked very well for others. So why not continue to utilize what works. As I said in my earlier post I am going to make my monthly goals public at the beginning of the month and post the results at the end.  I have my written journal ready and will continue to post my numbers on the web site. This is something I have to do because my discipline sucks and so does my ability to structure my training into a universal or adaptable practice. So here's what I have laid out for Febuary:
50 reps of each school form
50 reps of weapon form before banquet
10 minute Horse stance (with bean bags, if your going to do it....)
3000 kicks
40 km ran
Achieve 50 pull ups/chin ups in a row
Attend all open training sessions and work on curriculum and 5 techniques
Perform to the expectations of an I Ho Chuan member in the demo
Do mock Black Belt test at the end of the month and note results

So there it is, and you have all seen it. Now it's up to me to complete it.
See you at the kwoon.