One Cool Night

That way cool banquet lastnight was an incredible showing of where hard work, discipline, and adaptabilty can take you. Each candidate , with unique situations and outcomes, still forged ahead and represented determination right up to being promoted to Black Belt. I can honestly say I feel privilaged to have trained with each of you at some point, you guy's are awesome. Congratulations as well to our Black Belts promoted and our Sifus' and students being recognized for hard work and dedication to they're training and others.

Seeing and hearing our charity representatives and what we are able to do as a school instills pride for sure. It reminds you of where we come from, but also what it takes to create the opprotunity. A student body showing awarenes and earning support for others in need is a very solid example of true Martial artists.

The lion dance and dragon dance was incredible. You guys looked amazing and performed flawlessly. Nice work. Given the opportunity to be in a lion was a fun and a proud part of the evening, seeing little feet run beside you and guessing where our   next move is always keeps it fun. I felt very privilaged and proud to be of the I Ho Chuan team and it's demonstration a well. Seeing everyone from where  they stratde to where they ended for the year cannot be desribed but simply held with admiration and respect. You guy's looked great and displayed your skill to make a great demo, way cool.

The whole experience was incredible from the time we set up to the time we hung the last lion on the wall. The whole day was a calm atmoshere, I think the calmest I have ever seen anyone for that matter on a Chinese New Year Banquet. It rolled and moved along like a well oiled machine. It was also the one of those rare times when I was about do my weapon form and I was calm. The weirdest part though is where I went after the first block, I went into a battle zone and the only person there briefly was me, one of those very cool moments for sure.

It was good to see and talk to others I haven't seen in a while and to just be part of the whole thing. Bringing a close to the year of the sheep is filled with excitiement because  now we begin another year. I think the year of the monkey is going to be another great year training with awesome people and doing extrodinary things. Thanks again to the team and all of those involved that made the night spectacular.

One last note, I'm glad that a tragedy never occurred for a senesless and shameful act, I hope all is well.

Perpetual Motion

This kind of flow is what I hope to ultimately achieve over the next few months in my training. I hope to move forward not necessarily to the extreme or the relentless, but working towards the consistent and the effortless with lasting and steady improvement.
I spent some time again on the years plan and I am hoping this one will work out better than the previous. I honestly don't think it was lack of poor planning or intention on the previous thoughts. Nope, it was not only lack of discipline, but no consistent follow through either. Things look awesome on paper, but if you don't build and run the motions, it means squat.

I have a very basic, and I feel at the moment, an adaptable plan, just simply devise a training schedule and use the curriculumn as a guide. Between using the curriculumn as it is meant to be used for, the complete "How to become a Black Belt manual", and the I Ho Chuan process, it should work out awesome. I just need to remain consistant and be at the kwoon as much as possible.

I have days of the week designated to certain aspects, Techniques, fitness, form work, are all broken up and spread across the week. I will still have daily maintenance to keep moving forward, and numbers posted at the end of each week. I'm hoping soon to get off of this 6-10 schedule so I can attend fitness class and use the opening training time. These two classes, aside from Sihing class, are going to be a crucial part of this plan. Fitness class will tell me right away which areas of carrdio I need to work on and open training will offer a chance to work with someone, or for review, correction, sparring, etc. This will help if I get very busy during the week and because I will be left with something to work on or improve on.

Having said all of that, my greatest challenge at the moment is achieving a better self discipline, better at using training time efficiantly, and asking for assisistance when I need it. Keeping my focus narrow and changing my approach and follow through. I'm using the month of Febuary to experiment and begin training myself to what I have laid out. I'm hoping over the next few weeks things get better here. Time will tell. See you at the kwoon.

The Animal Transition

Well as of yesterday I have submitted my goals and training plan with the belief and confidence of a successful year in not only my training and it's advancement, but my approach and personal advancement in all aspects of my life. I am in a good place right now and there is that restoration of excitement and focus. I sorted a lot of things out the last while, completely deleting anything from my life that I don't need, and as a result my load is light at the moment with the exception of a hectic work schedule and a flu that just doesn't want to submit to my natural immune system. I'm not really fond of pills and such, as I prefer to suffer it out and let my body do the work. I do believe I am at the end of it though. I've left the cough and congestion stage and now in the no energy , body ache stage. Hopefully a good night sleep will give my body the final step it needs to irradicate this flu and I can continue on with my training and function as normal. As far as work goes, it is what it is. I'm just grateful to have a job... period.

I'm excited for the banquet coming up and can't wait to see some really awesome people that have had a very profound effect on my life be promoted to black belt. Working with the I Ho Chuan and soaking up that unexplained energy that fills the air that changes your life forever. Only to inspire one to charge into the next year fueled by that very fire that you see in the eyes of those being promoted. I couldn't more happy for them or grateful that I made their aquantance or gained some of their friendship.

As far as the rest of it goes, I was glad to make the meeting yesterday. It was good to spend an hour with my past teammates and meet some of the new. To those not returning I hope you have another great year, and to the newcomers, let's do this!

Getting back to my plans and goals this year, I really thought about doing this right. My plan is pretty straight forward and is laid out just like we are taught, set a goal, make a plan, get some solid success coaches, and engage that plan. Seems pretty straight forward right? It will be as long as I do a few very critical things. Keep my approach pure to myself and what I am doing. If I wander, it's my responsibility to get back on the path by reaching out to my coaches, that's what they are for. Remain accountable to the team and show the school what I am doing through pyhsical presence and my journaling. I can write down all the stuff I want and post it, but honestly if you never see anyone train, struggle, sweat, are you going to take them seriously and are you leading by example? No, your not. Writing down stuff, posting it and then prancing around here and there shows nothing. I mean sometimes that's all you have, and I'm not saying posting your numbers doesn't mean anything, of course it does and I will continue to do so myself. But when your at the kwoon your training should be able to back those numbers up and that is exactly what needs to be done. Especially if your grading. That will be my focus this year. To do my absolute best to be at the kwoon as much as I possibly can and not try to do this alone. This has always posed a serious challenge for myself and others and I'm hoping to break this personal cycle. Time will tell I guess. See you at the Kwoon.

Changing my Perspective, Part 2

Before I get into part 2 I need to clarify a few things. That rant and seemingly disrespectful view point is not directed towards anyone or the I Ho Chuan program. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. No one called me mediocre and nobody left me behind, those are my words and thoughts directed at me. By becoming angry about it, and putting those questions in my mind, I thought it was going to inspire me to move forward... it didn't. In actuality what I was doing was trying to justify my own short comings by making excuses on how the I Ho Chuan is not working for me. When ultimately it was me that wasn't working the program. I left myself behind and chose to remain isolated. That is how I saw myself and that is where my mind was at the time. As I said in the beginning, it's nothing personal nor am I blaming anyone. This is all on me and I am accountable for it all.  I'm trying to share my experience and since I am not so good at transferring my thoughts to paper, I apologize if I lit anyone up.

Now the otherside of the coin. The real purpose and guaranteed success cycle of the I Ho Chuan if you apply it in a positive way. Why 50,000 push ups and sit ups. This is the most basic and fool proof way to begin your success cycle and instill daily discipline and begin the concept of effortless effort. It becomes as common as brushing your teeth. Soon this evolves into a program of so much more. You begin to experiment with different ways to achieve them and develop a well rounded training discipline. If you are feeling an injury this will teach you how to adapt your training and still come out on top.

Why a 1000 form reps. This is a lesson on continuous evolution and places you on the path to mastery in your form work, be it a hand or weapon. If your getting to the point of boredom then you need to find a black belt to assess your form that hasn't seen it before. Everyone has a different eye for detail and I know through experience, this will definitely give you some homework and inspire you to move forward.

Why put yourself out there publically on the website and share your journey? One example would be if Bruce Lee never publicized his training and what he did to overcome a serious injury, would we even know who he was? Would we have any examples or inspirational figures to learn from? If I actually applied myself to journaling this past year, would I have remained in isolation? Would I have struggled as much as I did?  What do you have to look back on if there is no record of your successes and failures. How are you going to help others not make the same mistakes if you don't put the experience out there? I'll get over myself on this one.

Why a 1000 rounds of sparring and why a 1000 miles under your own power? Why a 1000 AOK? All of these different challenges are tools to keep all aspects of your training rounded. It is a universal training package, both mentally and physically. Everyone has short comings and everyone lacks confidence or skill in anyone of these areas. Applied correctly and as a team you cannot fail. But no matter what you think, you can't be fully successful by trying to accomplish this yourself. I'm not saying you can't train on your own, you pretty much have to, but you also have to be at the kwoon.

Now to answer all the questions I threw out in anger a few months back. The I Ho Chuan is definitely going to help with my retirement because it promotes good health and increases my life longevity, I am slowly becoming more aware of what I eat and it continues to keep my body in good shape and my mind sharp. The confidence I build and the positive energy I gain along with the acceleration of my adaptability skills and maintaining a calm mind with solid focus will definitely help build my career, Not to mention my job can be extremely physical, so this will keep me productive and versatile. By being a positive influence both physically and mentally and leading by example through ethics and morals I learn through my Kung Fu and it's requirements, I will continue to be a good husband and father which will definitely take care of my family. If my past comes at me I will sever it just as easily as I have done before.

At a very difficult time in my life, what I chose to blame was still there all the time. The thoughts of dropping to do push ups, throw some kicks, read the curriculum, grab my weapon, as much as I felt there was so much more important things to deal with, the I Ho Chuan and it's lessons and my commitment to others never left my mind and never stopped me from doing these things, no matter what I thought. That's the effects of the I Ho Chuan, once there, never leaves. In fact if that wasn't there I'm not sure I would have come out of it the way I did. Choosing to isolate myself from the kwoon wasn't easy. Neither is walking in there now. I know no one is judging me, but I am judging me and that's not going to change anytime soon. I didn't know how to ask for help. I'm not good at that at all. But I'm hoping this year will be different, by journaling as much as I can, and being at the kwoon as much as possible, I hope to turn this all around, so when I say watch and learn, that's what you will see. If I continue on a hectic work schedule then it's my responsibility to communicate that to the team and share my training routines, no ones going to learn nothing if I don't share that.

Changing My Perspective, Part 1

This blog is a straight forward and completely honest view and perspective that I have held and my struggles. My intention is to not be disrespectful or hamper any ones goals or intentions for success. I have witnessed huge successes and I am humbled by many martial artists on this team. So please don't take any of this personally because it's not about you or me. It's about question and repair. It's about seeking knowledge to share and to overcome a valley. It is simply a written experience of where I was at last year and some of the things I struggle with in the I Ho Chuan and hopefully after putting it all out there, I can succeed and move on to the next level of my training with the help of others. Because as it sits and where I am going, it could be a thing of the past and I really don't want that. I am in the process of moving forward to a highly succesful year in all aspects of my life, but mostly a restoration in my passion as a SRKF student. I want to complete this year on the right path and roll into the next one as more of a leader and be the example of how you can get through a I Ho Chuan program no matter what your lifestyle. A meeting would be the most ideal place to address these points, but as it sits, my work schedule has prevented that. The only way I am going to move forward and become a great Black Belt, is to remove the resentments, calm the ignorance, remove the blame, and evolve my somewhat defiance and stubborness, into strength and understanding. To see the balance that was once the core of all my strength. To ask for help, and that in itself is very difficult for me. This blog will be in two parts as it will make more sense and it would probaly end up to be about two feet long. So I will begin with some struggles and lack of understanding.

Well here it goes. I have a total of, I would boldly say about a 95% absence from the I Ho Chuan this year and its meetings. I have made very little contributing factors towards the team and my training this year as it would seem. If it was up to me as the administrator for the team, I would vote me off the island. In all honesty, I wasn't even going to sign up for the I Ho Chuan this past year. With my continuous unpredictable work schedule and my resentful views of the whole thing, I had no interest in running myself into the ground and becoming more and more distant from something not long ago I was very passionate about. As I strived for success, I was under a continuous realm of higher failure rates than success and struggling to find the time to balance work, family, Kung Fu, and my own personal reset time. I tried numerous times to explain the situation but it seemed very few could comprehend this type of lifestyle. That is until a few people on the team suddenly started working everyday and suddenly had no time either and ran themselves into the dirt or much like myself, stopped showing up or contributing.

I was told the program is designed for people in these situations, I was led to believe that not following through on the program and not succeeding is just being mediocre. In an angry mindset, I thought, "Wow!, I'm mediocre!, I've made it this far without the program and seem to fare out just fine." How about let's trade for a month. I guarantee this, very few could carry water for me when it comes to work ethic or how I lead myself and all that is a part of me through a number of things. Running on exhaustion and difficult paths and still moving forward is something I continue to do. I knew how to do that just fine without the I Ho Chuan. Who are you to dictate to me how I should run my life and drop everything I am doing to spend 6 days a week at the kwoon. Who are you to tell me to quit my job or give up overtime in order to facilitate the I Ho Chuans agenda? Who are you to tell me to give up time with my family or miss events as it should be viewed as investment, not sacrifice. Is the I Ho Chuan program going to set me up for retirement? Is the I Ho Chuan going to promote and advance my career? Is the I Ho Chuan going to pay my bills? Is the I Ho Chuan going to be there for my wife or children? Since there is very little I outsource, is the I Ho Chuan going to do all my work at home or other items I have to maintain or repair and spend upwards of 10 to 12 hours a day, 7 days a week at work and pull all of this off?

Nobody gets left behind I was told. Nobody is forgotten, and if someone is struggling, we have to reach back and pull them up. People have been left behind and not held accountable for their lack of engagement, like myself and others with similiar lifestyles or personal struggles. Two graduations when it came time for pictures to be taken at the end, nobody seemed to recall I wasn't there. It's not the picture, I could care less about that. It's the principal of the I Ho Chuan that is not reflected here. Nobody get's left behind and we will watch out for all team members.....that didn't happen and that's the point.

 How is doing the same exercise 50,000 times going to better me when all it's really doing is promoting injury? How are you going to have any kind of longevity as a martial artist when you are wearing out your joints prematurely and increasing your chances of injury tenfold. How is doing the same form over and over again to the point of boredom going to increase my engagement? Why is it that honesty or logging a view or a struggle is immediately placed in the positive/negative debate. How can you possibly come to a conclusion or push through an obstacle publically when you are told how to write? Why do I have to put myself out on social media when I don't want too. There are things and people of my past that I left in the past for a reason. I have severed them for good reason and putting myself out there defeats that purpose. Before Google plus decided to change their website, I had over 100,000 views. That concerned me a bit for the very reasons I have stated. That, and I honestly don't know what the heck was so interesting. How is being allowed to disappear and not being held accountable going to help anyone or the team?

These are some views I have with the program. This is troubling side of things for me. The part I can't seem to comprehend or justify. My struggles.

Part 2 will be about how this very same program I seem to dislike, was the most powerful tool I had that got me through a very dark and troubling year.

Inspiration Comes in Many Forms

You can be influenced and inspired to do better, think better, find solutions, or just simply change your perception on something from many sources. You just have to listen and watch and look at everything around you as a gift or opportunity. Sometimes I look at things of influence as they have to be great, they have to come from experience, or at least something that you have to think it through to move forward and act. It needs to be extraordinary and seemingly impossible in order to work. Bruce Lee once said, "If you spend too much time thinking about something, you will never get it done." I seem to have forgot that the little things have a much more profound impact than the more prominent. I sometimes waste too much time thinking about things. Keep it simple stupid, is a phrase I commonly go to when stuck. Other times an outside source in a basic format can punch me right in the face and give me that boost or push I need. Even perhaps the straight forward approach that used to come so naturally to me.

The young martial artist you see in the photo above put me in my place and brought me back to reality in a very powerful way. She laid out a plan. Nothing complex, nothing extreme, she just did it. She didn't spend days planning. She didn't make things overly complicated and she didn't need the perfect time or planned opportunity. She just did it.

This young martial artist took a break from Kung Fu and returned almost a year later. A few classes in, she made a plan and set a goal to have earned her yellow belt before Christmas. She needed a two or three stripes in order to be eligible to test for promotion. She worked towards her goals and a few weeks later she was promoted to Yellow belt.
Barely a few classes in as a yellow belt and the goals began, orange belt by her birthday and a black stripe by next class. That week she was given an assignment and went to work on it at home. Within a very short period of time she developed her own combination containing all parts of what was asked of by her Sifu's. She asked me to help which of course I did. But the reality of it was all I really had to offer was a few block suggestions and some stance tweaking. That was it. Next class came a there it was, a black stripe on her belt. All of this was done by simply setting a goal and working towards it. She just did it, no excuses, no over thinking, no bulls@#t. Just straight up took what she felt was hers and ran with it.

That young martial artist is my daughter and I couldn't be more proud or more humbled by her example and lesson she gave me. Well done and thanks for the reminder to keep it simple stupid and just do it.

A Christmas First and a Message

This is a first for my family, hanging out in the mountains of southern Alberta. Good food, a fire pit, a BBQ and lots to do and some quality time with my parents and siblings, this is going to be a very memorable Christmas indeed. I can't really explain it but I feel at home in the mountains. I feel peace and a sense of being fully grounded here. Thinking clearly and sorting out a mindset and direction comes easy for me here. Whatever it is and why will always remain a mystery but one thing's for sure, I am truly grateful to be able to take the time from work and enjoy it with my family.

There are a lot of people in this country and province that won't have such a place to go. There are some that have no home, nothing to eat, and no one to be with. There are the working people that are still living in poverty. People that work themselves to exhaustion with a job that will be lucky enough to buy a descent Christmas meal. Let alone have the means to go visit their family. There are elders, children, and teenagers that will have nothing to share, no joy and no love to share or feel. How can this be in this day and age. How can you have a job and still not be able to make ends meet. I have seen much of the homeless. I have seen poverty levels in several areas throughout North America, and it is not something I would wish on anyone. Sure, you could say that's just the way it is. You could say they are simply addicts that couldn't control themselves. You could also say they are complete nut jobs and are of no use anyway.
 This sort of mindset is what makes us all ignorant to reality. It's all good as long as you are not suffering. To the ignorant, addiction is a disease, not a choice, Whether we want to admit it or not, in one way or another we are all addicted to something, and every single one of us has a mental disability of some sort. We have just been lucky or have been given the opportunity to better ourselves and stuck with it, or we are living in a state of denial that will catch you at some point.

This is why one should practice the mentality of being grateful and putting our awareness towards others and our social issues as a priority. We don't need to buy things constanly thinking this is how it is supposed to be and that is more important. If we weren't so busy staring at a phone, playing with gadgets and over consumption on stupid things you don't need, it wouldn't be so hard to pull our heads out of the sand. If we spent even a fraction of our time volunteering to help others and holding those that control it all accountable as a society, we as a whole, could make a difference. The common phrases such as "Well there is nothing you can do, so why bother" or " That's too bad, but they made their choice" would be a thing of the past. To all the less fortunate, to all the addicts, mentally ill, to the starving, the homeless, and victims of abuse, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a wish that someday soon we will all get over ourselves and do something about it instead of standing around waiting for something to happen. As it appears, they couldn't care less and unfortunately we are right there with them.