Spending the last while working on five personal techniques. I have a goal to at least complete a rough draft for all five by the end of June, and then tune them from there. A million ideas pour through my mind but piecing this together has been a challenge for sure. During all this time I barely have one. This is a big deal for me. This showcases what you know and you are. Your creativity. Just exactly where you are at with your Kung Fu. Pretty intimidating over all, and probably one of the most important requirements of your grading. I feel like man, I don't know anything and I don't have anything. At the moment. But the clock is ticking....fast. Perhaps I am thinking way too much about it. Maybe I take on too much of the approval of my Sifus, and it just has to be that good. Well it should be that good damn it. I've put a lot of time and effort in my Kung Fu to get this far. People have taken time out of they're lives to teach me these things. Took the time to give me advice on their own time. The creativity is there, the discipline and ethic to work hard is there. It's just my stubborn mindset and relentless internal criticism that continues to hamper my evolution. That and I'm just not one to throw a bunch of crap together with no thought or heart and call it awesome. You only grade once and it means a lot to me. I want to feel like I earned it. I want to feel good about what I did and not look back and say "Yah I threw a bunch of junk together and signed it off as mine, good enough."
I guess the main thing is to remain positive and accept this as one of my greater challenges. Personally I like being under the gun. It motivates me when someone tells me I won't make it or it's almost too late. And yes it's been hinted or mentioned in a round about way. Some would see this as approval to quit, or accept someone else's opinion as right. Well if I actually lived my life that way, I doubt you would be reading this. Moving forward, once these are pieced together, this will be some of my best work.
Monday, 30 June 2014
Tuesday, 3 June 2014
Together we conquer, Divided we fall
I've been thinking a lot about preparing for black belt over the last while, long while. I really think that those of us that want to grade this year really need to get together, wherever, whenever. we can.
What I have seen in the last few years is people training on their own and then in the last few months before grading or preparing for the promotion ceremony they get together. Stressed out and tired from all the extra training they have to put in in order to prepare for it all and get used to each other. Yes I have trained on my own for quite some time. It's easier to train on your own because the only person you are accountable to is yourself. Therefore it's so easy to back up your excuses or not do a requirement. What are you going to do, beat yourself up? Yell at yourself? If you give a shit then that's exactly what your going to do. So what do you gain? Very little. How do you properly prepare for anything whether it be your own personal techniques, gauging your progress or fitness levels if you have no one to work with that is training and working towards the same goal. It's time for me to break that cycle. It's time for all the candidates to break this cycle.
The appreciation and discipline of working towards and achieving a goal is much more full filling and meaningful when you are challenged and have the presence of someone else. A balance is created. If someone is failing, there are many hands to pick them up. As unit I firmly believe that we will all succeed to achieving black belt. Everyone is very awesome in their own way. Everyone also completely sucks in other ways. This is why I feel that unification will not only prepare us for success, but install strong motivation, create honesty in ourselves, and tame the egos by learning from each other and supporting each other instead of comparing ourselves to what others are or aren't doing. We will also have someone to give us a nice swift kick in the ass that we all need from time to time.
I understand people work out of town or have whatever going on, but if we come up with a plan and communicate with each other and let people know what we are working on this will work no matter where you are. So am asking whoever is going to grade this year to get a hold of me by phone, email, or approach me at the kwoon and let's start training together hardcore. The Silent River way. I need and want the help. I also want to see a bunch of us preparing and working hard together, so when it comes time to grade, we will be known as a group that was ready to grade. Let's wake up the dragon shall we! See you at the kwoon
What I have seen in the last few years is people training on their own and then in the last few months before grading or preparing for the promotion ceremony they get together. Stressed out and tired from all the extra training they have to put in in order to prepare for it all and get used to each other. Yes I have trained on my own for quite some time. It's easier to train on your own because the only person you are accountable to is yourself. Therefore it's so easy to back up your excuses or not do a requirement. What are you going to do, beat yourself up? Yell at yourself? If you give a shit then that's exactly what your going to do. So what do you gain? Very little. How do you properly prepare for anything whether it be your own personal techniques, gauging your progress or fitness levels if you have no one to work with that is training and working towards the same goal. It's time for me to break that cycle. It's time for all the candidates to break this cycle.
The appreciation and discipline of working towards and achieving a goal is much more full filling and meaningful when you are challenged and have the presence of someone else. A balance is created. If someone is failing, there are many hands to pick them up. As unit I firmly believe that we will all succeed to achieving black belt. Everyone is very awesome in their own way. Everyone also completely sucks in other ways. This is why I feel that unification will not only prepare us for success, but install strong motivation, create honesty in ourselves, and tame the egos by learning from each other and supporting each other instead of comparing ourselves to what others are or aren't doing. We will also have someone to give us a nice swift kick in the ass that we all need from time to time.
I understand people work out of town or have whatever going on, but if we come up with a plan and communicate with each other and let people know what we are working on this will work no matter where you are. So am asking whoever is going to grade this year to get a hold of me by phone, email, or approach me at the kwoon and let's start training together hardcore. The Silent River way. I need and want the help. I also want to see a bunch of us preparing and working hard together, so when it comes time to grade, we will be known as a group that was ready to grade. Let's wake up the dragon shall we! See you at the kwoon
Monday, 19 May 2014
Tough Week
I had a lot of problems this week getting in time to train. It's just one of those times life kicks you around. I didn't get in the reps I wanted to or get to the kwoon. I had full intention to get to the kwoon on Saturday to make up for the time I lost on Friday. Unfortunately I received news of a death in the family and it knocked the wind right out my sails.
I had a cousin that was killed. A young man with a young family. I haven't seen him in about 8 years but when we were younger, we were fairly close. I don't understand as we age or whatever the circumstances might be, how we always take our family members for granted. Is it really that hard to pick up a phone or take one lousy hour if we're in the neighborhood to stop and visit. Is it really that hard to remove your ego or swallow your pride and make peace over something stupid. Why does it take a death for us to realize how fragile life really is or how selfish we can be. It seems when this happens all of a sudden we have this revelation to call our parents or tell ourselves how we are going to call our relatives once a month. We are going to visit everyone we can and plan trips to see them. Then a month or two later we get wound up in our own lives and the whole plan goes out the window. Don't get me wrong there are circumstances and people we are just not going to get along with. Some people insist on closing the doors on others. I think really though if we can make some sort of peace or balance with our family that we clash with, there will be no regrets when they suddenly are gone. I am grateful that this wasn't the case with my cousin, but it could be with some of the others in my family. Rest in peace cousin.
So due to the circumstances I won't be able to complete my goal of doing 24 hours of Kung Fu as the funeral is this weekend. However I will be able to get in 6 hours on Saturday morning before I depart. From what I understand Sifu Masterson has $100 burning a hole in her pocket. See you at the kwoon.
Numbers for the week;
I had a cousin that was killed. A young man with a young family. I haven't seen him in about 8 years but when we were younger, we were fairly close. I don't understand as we age or whatever the circumstances might be, how we always take our family members for granted. Is it really that hard to pick up a phone or take one lousy hour if we're in the neighborhood to stop and visit. Is it really that hard to remove your ego or swallow your pride and make peace over something stupid. Why does it take a death for us to realize how fragile life really is or how selfish we can be. It seems when this happens all of a sudden we have this revelation to call our parents or tell ourselves how we are going to call our relatives once a month. We are going to visit everyone we can and plan trips to see them. Then a month or two later we get wound up in our own lives and the whole plan goes out the window. Don't get me wrong there are circumstances and people we are just not going to get along with. Some people insist on closing the doors on others. I think really though if we can make some sort of peace or balance with our family that we clash with, there will be no regrets when they suddenly are gone. I am grateful that this wasn't the case with my cousin, but it could be with some of the others in my family. Rest in peace cousin.
So due to the circumstances I won't be able to complete my goal of doing 24 hours of Kung Fu as the funeral is this weekend. However I will be able to get in 6 hours on Saturday morning before I depart. From what I understand Sifu Masterson has $100 burning a hole in her pocket. See you at the kwoon.
Numbers for the week;
- Push ups 8325/ 50,000
- Ab work 8250/ 50,000
- Distance 95/ 1600
- School forms 330/ 8000
- Kicks 3250/ 50,000
- Sparring 253/ 1000
- Qi Gong 53/ 365
- Random Acts of Kindness 70/ 1000
- Weapon form 94/ 1000
- Hand form 0/ 1000
Monday, 12 May 2014
A New Tool
So things are rolling along pretty good so far. There is always room for improvement of course. I have been working on my weapon form quite a bit last week and I have achieved a solid base. I still have work to do with the flying spinning back kick but I am confident it should come together soon. Now that I have the base laid out and most of the glitch's removed I can work on good solid stances and work on the six harmonies with every strike, block, and directional transitions. I feel really good about the form and enjoy this weapon immensely. As long as I keep this focus and discipline I should be way ahead of the Canada Day demo.
Moving along with the rest of my training I didn't get the amount of reps in as I wanted to but I still have something to show for the week. I worked on forms mostly. The new tool I speak of is my tablet. I started to use it to film myself while doing forms. It has been very helpful in exposing certain areas that I cannot feel or see while doing the form. Which in turn gives me that much more information and I can make improvements and witness them first hand as continue with filming repetitions. For example I have been missing a block in kempo for sometime now. I never realized it until I watched myself doing the form. I am going to start filming my kicks as well. Something I am struggling with, but hopefully this tool will help me here as well. I have been riding my bike and doing my best to finish the day with a walk at night. Soon I want to start running once or twice a week. This one will take a little bit since I don't really like running which is all the more reason I should do it.
One last note it was really good to be able to be at the kwoon this weekend and also help out with the rotary park clean up. My decision to discontinue week end work has already improved my mindset and balance towards my journey this year. See you at the kwoon.
Numbers from last week;
Moving along with the rest of my training I didn't get the amount of reps in as I wanted to but I still have something to show for the week. I worked on forms mostly. The new tool I speak of is my tablet. I started to use it to film myself while doing forms. It has been very helpful in exposing certain areas that I cannot feel or see while doing the form. Which in turn gives me that much more information and I can make improvements and witness them first hand as continue with filming repetitions. For example I have been missing a block in kempo for sometime now. I never realized it until I watched myself doing the form. I am going to start filming my kicks as well. Something I am struggling with, but hopefully this tool will help me here as well. I have been riding my bike and doing my best to finish the day with a walk at night. Soon I want to start running once or twice a week. This one will take a little bit since I don't really like running which is all the more reason I should do it.
One last note it was really good to be able to be at the kwoon this weekend and also help out with the rotary park clean up. My decision to discontinue week end work has already improved my mindset and balance towards my journey this year. See you at the kwoon.
Numbers from last week;
- Push ups 7825/ 50,000
- Ab work 7750/ 50,000
- Distance 90 kms/ 1600
- School forms 310/ 8000
- Kicks 3100/ 50,000
- Sparring 253/ 1000
- Qi Gong 49/ 365
- Random acts of kindness 70/ 1000
- Weapon form 74/ 1000
- Hand form 0/ 1000
Monday, 5 May 2014
Because I Have Kung Fu
Lot's of changes are occurring as of late. I am directing my front wheel on a different path. Since I have trained at our school I have been able to balance things fairly well overall. It's never easy but anything worth it never is. Last year I focused my attention to mastery more towards my career than anything else. An opportunity and a intense challenge was dropped on my lap to better myself and proceed further down the path of mastery in regards to my passion. My work. So I jumped on it. As I have said before I didn't choose a career to remain stagnant or mediocre. I was also supposed to grade last year for black belt and focus more towards my kung fu, my other passion, but that went to the way side with the amount of attention and focus that was needed for my work. Between that, a family that missed me, and a lot of personal challenges I honestly thought I would never have to face. My training took a back seat and balancing became very difficult.
Fast forward to this year. I had a plan to work only on the tools and only Monday to Friday. I was going to put a huge focus towards my Kung Fu and everything else would travel along side of me with Kung Fu in the lead. My girl's and friends were behind me, I referred to a friend to have a look at my plan I laid out for critique, and it was all good. I discovered a different perspective towards my Kung Fu mentally. The ability to train using Wu Wei was a tool that I wanted to install in my training and do my best to have a better handle on it by the time grading day arrived. It was rolling along pretty good until I set foot on the job I am at now. Here I am again working 7 days a week and very little time to do anything. Missing classes and open training is going to guarantee me a fail. It has to change.
The I Ho Chuan program is put out in front of you to emphasize your weaker and stronger points and to help you improve and balance. To help you make better decisions. Well I made a decision last Friday at work and then another on Saturday at the meeting, and I followed through today. I told my boss that I am no longer working Saturdays or Sundays. I may have to leave 10 minutes early on Fridays so I can make my Sihing class. He asked why, and I simply told him, " Because I have Kung Fu and I have a goal." I asked if this was a problem and I was told no. If it becomes an issue I will move onto another job. No big deal. I am not owned by anyone and this is a level of mastery that requires my full attention and focus. Sacrifices will be made in order to succeed and I am no stranger to this. I have been there in other aspects of my life in order to achieve mastery and this is something very special and I will see it through.
I have a few goals this month that I am working towards. I want to do the full 24 hrs of Kung Fu at the pandemonium. I want to have all my push ups and sittups caught up by the end of the month. I want to learn the full Loa Gar form so I can start tracking reps. See you at the Kwoon.
Numbers from last week:
Fast forward to this year. I had a plan to work only on the tools and only Monday to Friday. I was going to put a huge focus towards my Kung Fu and everything else would travel along side of me with Kung Fu in the lead. My girl's and friends were behind me, I referred to a friend to have a look at my plan I laid out for critique, and it was all good. I discovered a different perspective towards my Kung Fu mentally. The ability to train using Wu Wei was a tool that I wanted to install in my training and do my best to have a better handle on it by the time grading day arrived. It was rolling along pretty good until I set foot on the job I am at now. Here I am again working 7 days a week and very little time to do anything. Missing classes and open training is going to guarantee me a fail. It has to change.
The I Ho Chuan program is put out in front of you to emphasize your weaker and stronger points and to help you improve and balance. To help you make better decisions. Well I made a decision last Friday at work and then another on Saturday at the meeting, and I followed through today. I told my boss that I am no longer working Saturdays or Sundays. I may have to leave 10 minutes early on Fridays so I can make my Sihing class. He asked why, and I simply told him, " Because I have Kung Fu and I have a goal." I asked if this was a problem and I was told no. If it becomes an issue I will move onto another job. No big deal. I am not owned by anyone and this is a level of mastery that requires my full attention and focus. Sacrifices will be made in order to succeed and I am no stranger to this. I have been there in other aspects of my life in order to achieve mastery and this is something very special and I will see it through.
I have a few goals this month that I am working towards. I want to do the full 24 hrs of Kung Fu at the pandemonium. I want to have all my push ups and sittups caught up by the end of the month. I want to learn the full Loa Gar form so I can start tracking reps. See you at the Kwoon.
Numbers from last week:
- Push ups 6775 /50,000
- Ab work 6700 /50,000
- Dist. 70 kms / 1600
- School forms 270 /8000
- Kicks 2900 /50,000
- Sparring 223 /1000
- Qi Gong 44 /365
- Random acts of kindness 68 /1000
- Weapon form 44 /1000
- Hand form 0 /1000
Monday, 28 April 2014
As Promised
I said a few posts back that I would post my numbers in order to be totally transparent to the team and fully meet the requirement of tracking your progress publically. These aren't impressive at all considering how much time has gone by. Although the total on a lot of this could be much higher, it's not for two simple reasons: 1) I didn't write down every single rep I did. 2) I didn't do enough reps daily. I still haven't learned Loa Gar completely and this is the form I chose for the year of the horse. I could have estimated sure, but what good is that. I'm lying to me and all of you. Besides our Black Belts are too keen to try to pull this stunt. Because they have all been there and can recognize B.S. This is also a result of "I'm Gonna, I'm trying, tomorrow I'll.....," You get the picture I'm sure. So just because I am publically admitting that I am failing at the moment, this doesn't give me a pass and make it all okay. I need this to be clear to everyone on the team. I am old school and thick skinned so if you have anything to say to me that can help or give me the wake up call I need, please come forward. I welcome it.
So instead of trying or I'm going to, I AM DOING!! and you are all going to see me catch up and progress because I am not hiding nothing from anyone anymore. You will SEE my completed requirements and numbers every week. You will see my steady progression when I am at the kwoon. I am not wasting another year screwing the pooch, or blaming work or what ever else I can divert my own lack of discipline towards. It sounds like we are finally going to start working on the phase of the project that I was hired to help with. Once this is done, I'm out of there. This schedule is too much to get in descent training, so it must change. I'll pull another dispatch slip where I am working Monday to Friday and that's it.
Just pondering a little on the things that I am at a higher level of mastery with in my life and something occurred to me. I seemed to have found the time and made the effort to practice mastery in other things. Lots of time and effort. Just like many of you have in order to better your careers or education or both, or whatever it is your into. So what's the difference between that and achieving Black Belt. Nothing. It may not seem like it or sound like it, but out of it all, I am remaining very positive and very grateful through all of this. The excitement of this years journey is still alive and well. See you at the kwoon.
So instead of trying or I'm going to, I AM DOING!! and you are all going to see me catch up and progress because I am not hiding nothing from anyone anymore. You will SEE my completed requirements and numbers every week. You will see my steady progression when I am at the kwoon. I am not wasting another year screwing the pooch, or blaming work or what ever else I can divert my own lack of discipline towards. It sounds like we are finally going to start working on the phase of the project that I was hired to help with. Once this is done, I'm out of there. This schedule is too much to get in descent training, so it must change. I'll pull another dispatch slip where I am working Monday to Friday and that's it.
Just pondering a little on the things that I am at a higher level of mastery with in my life and something occurred to me. I seemed to have found the time and made the effort to practice mastery in other things. Lots of time and effort. Just like many of you have in order to better your careers or education or both, or whatever it is your into. So what's the difference between that and achieving Black Belt. Nothing. It may not seem like it or sound like it, but out of it all, I am remaining very positive and very grateful through all of this. The excitement of this years journey is still alive and well. See you at the kwoon.
- Push ups: 5725/ 50,000
- Ab work: 5650/ 50,000
- Distance: 60 miles
- Weapon form: 32
- Hand form: 0 I don't count nothing until I can do the whole form.
- School forms: 250/ 8000 (1000 of each form) I will break this down next post
- Kicks: 2700/ 50,000
- Random Acts of kindness: 38/ 1000
Friday, 25 April 2014
The Severance of Useless Energy
Take a moment to assess all the things around you that promote your being "average." These are the things that prevent you from going beyond the limits that you've arbitrarily set for yourself.
I have been trying to memorize Mastery the last little while. I should know it in my sleep by now for the amount of times I have read it and use it for guidance. I seem to relentlessly procrastinate when it comes to my Sihing and I Ho Chuan requirements. Not because I don't care. Not because there hasn't been ample warnings from Sifu Brinker on the damaging effect of leaving them to the last minute and treating gifts as hoops and instead of tools. Is it because I have no work ethic? No. It's simply because my priorities and discipline are off balance at the moment in my training and this is the mindset I've arbitrarily set for my journey to mastery. Hence, accountability and discipline. Am I going to sit here and complain and moan about how hard it is and how I am just so busy? Am I going to put negative energy out there and blame every possible thing I can think of as to why I am choosing to stay stagnant or mediocre. No. To me this is not only disrespectful to my teachers, the school, and other students. But to myself. What kind of example or message am I sending through this practice? I am basically telling the world through my blogs that it is okay to not try harder and constantly make excuses even though I am signed up to a hard core challenge. I am behind in many aspects of my journey so far. So should I quit? Should I just sit down and cry about it until I wet myself ? Should I quit my job? Tell my family to beat it. Tell my friends to beat it. Pump up a big ball of negativity and walk around in it like a hamster. Not likely. I keep moving along and doing my best to adapt and follow through on my journey. So what do I do to keep moving ahead?
The first step to mastery is the removal of everything in your environment that represents mediocrity, and one way to attain that objective is to surround yourself with people who ask more of you than you would ordinarily give of yourself.
At the moment it is difficult to be at the kwoon as much as I would like to be in order to do this. So a great substitute is all of my teammates blogs. This is a very important tool to benefit those that can't attend regular classes. So when you don't blog you are of no help to people that need it and of no help to yourself. Although sometimes late and being a private person, I am blogging more than I ever have because I need help and I want to help others. Even though I don't like it or it makes me feel uncomfortable, I don't think I am special or I need to be allowed to not do something just because I don't want to, or it's hard. If that did happen, I am thankful that I have others on the team that will tell me to get over myself and do the damn requirement. I also read mastery and assess everything around me that is negative or damaging to my training and remove it. I have severed people from my life and have made many sacrifices to keep things in check. I consult people I hold as my mentors. I ask for help when I need it. I don't hide from everyone or just pretend that I am moving along and everything is just sunshine and roses. I am constantly making adjustments along the way and trying to do my best. I have moments of failure and moments of progress. Some things work and some things don't. When I am at the kwoon I try even harder because I am surrounded by likeminded people and teachers that expect more from me than I would of myself and distance myself from the politics. Each time I go to the kwoon I want to show some progression. The bottom line is commitment, accountability, adjustment, and following through. See you at the kwoon.
Correction is essential to power and mastery. - Stewart Emery
I have been trying to memorize Mastery the last little while. I should know it in my sleep by now for the amount of times I have read it and use it for guidance. I seem to relentlessly procrastinate when it comes to my Sihing and I Ho Chuan requirements. Not because I don't care. Not because there hasn't been ample warnings from Sifu Brinker on the damaging effect of leaving them to the last minute and treating gifts as hoops and instead of tools. Is it because I have no work ethic? No. It's simply because my priorities and discipline are off balance at the moment in my training and this is the mindset I've arbitrarily set for my journey to mastery. Hence, accountability and discipline. Am I going to sit here and complain and moan about how hard it is and how I am just so busy? Am I going to put negative energy out there and blame every possible thing I can think of as to why I am choosing to stay stagnant or mediocre. No. To me this is not only disrespectful to my teachers, the school, and other students. But to myself. What kind of example or message am I sending through this practice? I am basically telling the world through my blogs that it is okay to not try harder and constantly make excuses even though I am signed up to a hard core challenge. I am behind in many aspects of my journey so far. So should I quit? Should I just sit down and cry about it until I wet myself ? Should I quit my job? Tell my family to beat it. Tell my friends to beat it. Pump up a big ball of negativity and walk around in it like a hamster. Not likely. I keep moving along and doing my best to adapt and follow through on my journey. So what do I do to keep moving ahead?
The first step to mastery is the removal of everything in your environment that represents mediocrity, and one way to attain that objective is to surround yourself with people who ask more of you than you would ordinarily give of yourself.
At the moment it is difficult to be at the kwoon as much as I would like to be in order to do this. So a great substitute is all of my teammates blogs. This is a very important tool to benefit those that can't attend regular classes. So when you don't blog you are of no help to people that need it and of no help to yourself. Although sometimes late and being a private person, I am blogging more than I ever have because I need help and I want to help others. Even though I don't like it or it makes me feel uncomfortable, I don't think I am special or I need to be allowed to not do something just because I don't want to, or it's hard. If that did happen, I am thankful that I have others on the team that will tell me to get over myself and do the damn requirement. I also read mastery and assess everything around me that is negative or damaging to my training and remove it. I have severed people from my life and have made many sacrifices to keep things in check. I consult people I hold as my mentors. I ask for help when I need it. I don't hide from everyone or just pretend that I am moving along and everything is just sunshine and roses. I am constantly making adjustments along the way and trying to do my best. I have moments of failure and moments of progress. Some things work and some things don't. When I am at the kwoon I try even harder because I am surrounded by likeminded people and teachers that expect more from me than I would of myself and distance myself from the politics. Each time I go to the kwoon I want to show some progression. The bottom line is commitment, accountability, adjustment, and following through. See you at the kwoon.
Correction is essential to power and mastery. - Stewart Emery
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