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.