September 27, 2015

Momma always said; “life is like a box of….” Ah forget it.  You get the picture. 

Life is grand because of its diversity, but sometimes that diversity is hard to appreciate.  Work schedules, physical ailments, family, community commitments.  Sometimes circumstance, other times by choice we find ourselves in situations away from the Kwoon and the training environment.

I go through a period of alone time training every year.  Sometimes a couple weeks, often a couple months.  It still does not get any easier to make the decision to walk through the door after a long period of time. Fear, anxiety and doubt are not uncommon.  Knowing that my training is not the same being away as it is when I am there, forces the question whether I have done all I could to get where I want to go.

What I forget however, is that sometimes solitude can be a great advantage.  I actually appreciate some time in hashing things out on my own.  I am not sure if it is the huge failures that sweeten the successes or what, but I find progress in solitude can be very rewarding.  That being said, no matter how much of a soloist you are, face time with training partners and Sifu’s is a must both technically and mentally.

And so came and went the forms seminar.  The hoe and dozer stopped in their tracks and I flew Mach speed to the school in nervous excitement that it would rise to my expectation.   And it did.  Thanks to all the Sifu’s for their time and careful attention to making us better martial artists.

Bruce Lee and the Apocalypse

I wake up in a cold sweat.  The walls of the room ricochet flashes of light with every blast.  Could it possibly be? I roll… low profile like…to the floor and not bobbing an inch, crawl commando style to the window. My mind contemplates the worst.  Bombs? Maybe. Unforeseen asteroid? Knowing how NASA is cutting back, this is very likely.

At times like this, you can never be more thankful for bulletproof Kevlar jammies. 

I hear a fiendish cackle, yup, must be a mob, recently ousted from their homes and coming here to get my 862 gallons of stored water, 122 days of rice preserves and most importantly my bulk cases of Pringle chips.

My wife wakes and looks down at me on the floor. Of course the terror of the situation is written all over the confused look on her face.  I tell her to stay calm and toss the baseball bat from under my pillow.

She tosses the bat and says ‘Fine, but don’t scare the neighbors again, they’re out having a pretty nice fire in the back yard’

OK, false alarm, but one can never be too prepared.

The confidence that I get from preparedness is critical to my function.  Unfortunately, that dynamic ability to adjust, to fly by the seat of the pants is more often what is called for.  This got me thinking about the question; In my drive to constantly be prepared, am I being counterproductive to my ability to be spontaneous?  If you are always prepared, when on earth do you get to practice for when things don’t go according to plan?

In the words of Bruce Lee, “Don’t make a plan of fighting; that is a very good way of losing your teeth”. “Be formless, shapeless, like water. Put water into a cup, it becomes the cup…”

Following that logic however, you can’t be water if you’re currently a brick.

So I analyzed Kung Fu and why we practice and prepare as we do.  Form repetition is obviously very critical for developing flexibility, strength, muscle memory….Aha, there is the answer.  Instinct.  Bruce Lee further talks about being formless and shapeless, to empty your mind rather than trying to remember what you have learned. But in order to act in all spontaneity, it goes without question that your body requires a blueprint to instinctively follow.

Forms give rise to instinct, and instinct can transform a brick into water.

In this revelation my heart rate rises in excitement for the forms seminar coming up this weekend.  But for now, I will tuck the bat back under the pillow and try to get some sleep.

September 13, 2015

The fact that the average Canadian is currently spending more than $1.5 for every $1.0 earned shouldn’t be a surprise if you follow the trend in Canadian politics.  I typically don’t like to get political in my blogging, but this time of season where a Canadian election is around the corner only the best has been brought out in our Canadian politicians.  I say that with a great deal of sarcasm of course.

It isn’t however the fault of our political parties to rally support through thoughtless promise.  Promises that they know very well the people will never hold them accountable for.  Let’s face it, all is fair in love and war…..and politics.  A party leader is only going to cater to the wants of the people, and when the people are throwing votes at the expense of horrendous debt I guess we should expect what we ask for.

The simple fact of the matter is this.  You cannot continue to spend what you do not have.  Don’t get me wrong, I have the same drive to get the best healthcare, the best education for our kids, and provide the best security of our country as the next person.  But to gain a popular vote by promising the moon to every Canadian does not seem responsible.  By no surprise then, there has been very little campaigning that mentioned spending cuts, or increasing efficiency or complete removal of broken programs.  I have heard a lot of thoughtless promise, but no mention how on earth they plan to pay for this. 

We live in one of the largest countries of the world with one of the highest resource values of any country yet, we are acquiring more debt than the majority of the first world, and by many metrics in comparison to other countries fall short.

There is only one answer to this.  We need to change our views before we change our government.  We need to figure out how to get our own households in order and out of debt before we can ask the same of our government. We need to reduce our strain on the environment by changing our consumer patterns, spend less than we make, understand that living in our country is a privilege and not a right and for goodness sake quite blaming the government for the monster each one us has created.

 

September 6, 2015

Continuous employment is not recognition of a job well done.  In my last few years of consulting in the environment industry, this past week it hit me that I have very little evidence that the work I complete is recognized as exceptional.

This bothered me because during certain periods of the season, work takes probably close to 90% of my attention.  Application to Mastery in Kung Fu must absolutely spill over in application to every aspect of our lives.  If it doesn’t, then Kung Fu is nothing but superficial, and becomes nothing greater than a hobby rather than a lifestyle.  This isn’t as bad as it reads though.  I would argue that most of us began our Kung Fu journey not recognizing the full implications it would have on our thoughts and actions, until one day it dawns on us that it is a lifestyle, not recreation. 

Back to my original point though.  If something like my career is not showing the spill-over effects of my efforts in Kung Fu, then what am doing wrong?  Am I truly applying mastery to all aspects of my life if something as significant as my career is not reflecting it.  Truly, I wish to be the best consultant available to my client.

So with some discouragement and disappointment I decided to think more on what I was using as a yardstick for my success in my career.  Feedback, negative or positive, is just not a suitable measure of my efforts because there just isn’t enough data.  That is just the consulting game I guess.

So I am still scratching my head on this one.  It seems as though not all thoughts can be answered before Sunday night’s blog post.  I pose the question to you all.  What do you use as an indicator that you are successfully applying mastery to the most important aspects of your life?