How To Make Me Awesome

“Try surrounding yourself with friends who ask more of you than you do” It’s a part of the philosophy of mastery we are familiar with. For the last couple weeks I have been away for work, and as always the biggest adjustment is being away from the team atmosphere of the I Ho Chuan, the students, and Sifu’s of Silent River.

People who strive to be exceptional are addicting to be around.  This is probably because they produce a synergy that helps challenge, support, and holds us accountable in our development of mastery. But what do you do when circumstances are such that the support is vacant, or at least not at arm’s length?

Mostly I have been looking internally when approaching the I Ho Chuan this year.  Equally important, however, is to make everyone around me……Awesome. If everyone around me is awesome, than I have no other option but what to work towards awesomeness also! Forget about making lemonade out of lemons, I am talking about growing a lemon tree so I can produce a lemonade factory!

So, one thing I have been doing lately is getting pushy. Not in the negative sense however.  Rather, challenging the people I work with to stretch themselves beyond limits.  This has two results, it is somewhat self-serving in the fact that it has generated that missing energy that I am used to from training partners, and secondly it produces an exceptional work product.  Rather than making exceptions for my workers, I am trying to help my co-workers become exceptional so that I will have no excuses for being mediocre.

I figure this will help with my I Ho Chuan year, or I will have a mutiny.  Let’s see how this pans out.

vincekrebs@blogspot.com

 

May 9th

Friday was May 9^th. Which is a day of remembrance for our family.  A day for the past five years where we spend it together. Work and Kung Fu will have to wait until after we take in the sunshine of the mountains.  It will wait until after we walk the trails and explore the Maligne River gorge. It will wait until we balance on logs and climb boulders. It will wait until we throw rocks in the emerald green pools of the river. It will wait until trees are climbed and a boy falls up to his waist in the river.  For this day….it can all be put off until tomorrow.

                          Can you find the forester?

An "unlikely" encounter

Recently I was talking about shoulder problems, and the question come up why in the not too distant future some steel is going to have to come out of my collar bone.  Questions were raised, and even the rumour came up again that it was the result of a misunderstanding with a toboggan.  I had to dig back into the Shellacking Shenanigans fight club website to once again recall the true story.  So Here it is once again.

The car came around the corner at break neck speed.  There wasn't much time to react.  Flying like Hermes I made up the ground.  I Pounced.....Leopard like from the curb and mid-air pushed the baby stroller out of danger.  Performing a mid-air helix I narrowly missed the savage chrome grill determined to crush me.  Floating, graceful....like a Canadian maple leaf spread wide in the perfect Zephyr.  Enveloping the pavement in the perfect shoulder roll.

The baby carriage rolled.......and bumped into a group of gangsters that made the Godfather seem like Saint Vincent.  That's the last time they'll attack with just lead pipes, baseball bats and chains.

After neatly tucking the legs of the last scoundrel into the nearest dumpster, I noticed a homeless fellow taking refuge.  I introduced myself, and so did he.  It was Chuck Norris.  We traded fighting secrets, and he was very appreciative.  Before long the conversation turned to why he was in a dumpster.  Apparently his fighting career had taken a turn for the worse. He needed a collar bone replacement, and I guess donors were limited.  So there you have it.  Chuck Norris continues to make millions on his book of Chuckisms and movie career, and I have an 8 inch bar with 9 screws in my shoulder as a result.

No big deal Chuck.  I would have done it for anyone.

In all seriousness though, it is something I am going to have to address.  Maybe in six months, maybe in a year.  As it sits right now though, keep on keeping on.

Spring time

Well it is official, I have gotten the call out to get back to work.  While I have been spared a couple days due to mother nature, I am heading back to the field following a couple days of drying time. This is the turning point, how I approach the next couple weeks is critical. I cannot get complacent, miss out on routine, or fall into bad habits. I have to closely monitor my health and progress. I have to continually reflect on where I am at, and where I am going. I have to maintain engagement with the team through blog postings and whenever possible conference in to meetings.  I have to make a list of items and label their importance so I can employ a triage approach.  I hate having to do this, but it is critical to my success, past years have proved that.

The Wonderful World of Plastic

I am a fella that tends to try to suck every ounce of life out the items I have.  I have a lawn mower that is hanging on by a thread with a nasty speed wobble from hitting the city water outlet on more than one occasion.  I have a car with a front bumper held together with scotch tape and zip ties, and a T-shirt worn to rags that I won’t retire because I screen printed it myself in 1994.

Therefore, it isn’t a stretch to assume that I appreciate good quality. I must say, the quality of products these days are an exact reflection of a disposable world drenched in massive consumerism, mediocre to downright poor workmanship, and so on and so on.

After breaking about the 9,000^th plastic widget for my lifetime trying to fix the car the other day, I can honestly say I am completely fed up with the state of society’s attitude.

 

Same old blog, every season.

Well as most people look at the sunshine and disappearing snow with welcome, for me it means the field season is going to start picking up, and that means less time spent at the Kwoon.  I am certainly thankful for the last couple of slow months which have allowed me to put some time in.  I am not a big fan of this on and off approach through the year, but it is something I need to manage.  I keep learning every year and hope to get to the point where this is second nature.

Every year I write the same type of blog this time of season.  I really am not sure if I am adapting any better.  I guess time will tell.

 

vincekrebs@blogspot.com

A new kind of therapy.

Seeking a solution.  That is why I lay on this table with a very large magnet masking taped to my head.  There are several things that you should leave to the professionals. A couple that come to mind are trapeze, jumping multiple buses with a heavy bike, crack sealing the Hoover dam and perhaps……biomagnetism. 

But what the heck, my muscles have felt like piano wires for the last two months.  A ten hour world wind trip to Fort McMurray on the weekend did not help the Sciatic one bit.  And let’s face it, my father in law can be quite convincing when he wants to be, and he is a chemist.  So, with a series of magnets I have now become his Frankenstein monster for the day.

The sciatic pain was greatly reduced for the most part. The skeptic in me attributes it to other explanations, none of which are any more logical.  But for now I will sit on these small magnets as I write this blog and if that doesn’t work, at least they work great for holding up the kids art on the refrigerator.

What’s next you ask?  Sticking my fingers in light sockets for electroshock therapy, Eating drywall (sorry to those that actually have that condition) or perhaps what I need most is just good old fashioned REST.

 

vincekrebs@blogspot.com