When the Going Gets Tough. . .

How do you respond when something you have to accomplish is extremely difficult?  What are the steps you take to apply yourself to a demanding project?  How do you react when this thing that you must do is just too big for you?  When it is something you cannot avoid, how do you tackle it? 

Perhaps you start by studying the problem, making plans, comparing what must be done with what you are capable of.  Maybe you call for advice from friends and family, or consult experts for tips and pointers, or maybe you research, study, or do some training to improve your ability to tackle the project, or you might build a team of colleagues/friends/family to work together to get through this difficult endeavor.

There are many approaches to choose from.

How do you respond when someone else, your child, friend, colleague, etc. is the one with the overwhelming task?  Do you give advice, point them to experts, help them study or train, join the team they need to get through their work?

Life is one of those very, very difficult tasks.

There are a lot of people out there who think it is supposed to be easy.  There are a lot of people out there who will sell you a house, a car, a watch, or a phone that they say will make it easy.  A lot of people despair because no matter how much money, no matter how great a job, no matter their personal, political, or social power, they discover that life still is not easy. 

Those people are looking for the wrong answer.  The answer does not lie in lowering the bar until you no longer have to run and leap, but can simply step over it.  The answer does not lie in a device that can organize your addresses, your calendar, and even your 1,500 downloaded songs to have at the touch of a finger.  The answer is not in making life easier.  Continually looking for some gadget to solve the difficulties of life will lead to continual disappointments.

The answer is the same as for other difficult tasks, to study, plan, learn, train, ask for help.  In short, the answer is not in making life easier to handle, but in making yourself better able to handle it. 

Would you expect an Olympic sprinter who wants to set a new world record to wish that the current record were not quite so fast, or to train with the difficulty of beating it fully understood?  Would you expect an Olympic sprinter to train alone, or to train with a coach and teammates?  Would the right path to breaking that record being use of steroids, or training the body with honesty and integrity?

Life is one of those very, very difficult tasks, so live every day in a way that makes you strong enough to handle it.  Become strong enough to ask for and accept help when you need it.  Practice patience so you can lend help when needed.  Strengthen your financial situation so you can give to charities.  Strengthen your emotional well being so you can be a pillar for others when they are weak.  Make yourself strong, so others can lean on you. 

How can all this be done?  Practice.  If you have an extra quarter, drop it in the Salvation Army bucket.  If you have a free Saturday, help a friend move.  If you are feeling secure, listen to someone who is struggling with life.  Practice in little ways every day.  Pick trash up from the ground and throw it in a can, hold a door for someone, buy someone dinner, play someone a song on your guitar, cut off your hair and donate it to Locks of Love.  Ask for help preparing supper.  Let someone else vacuum the carpet this time.  There are millions of things you can do. 

Start now.  

Real Self Defense

There is a crowd out there that strongly believes that the only purpose for martial arts training is to learn to fight.  There are people who look at the “good old days” of how they trained.  They glorify the fact that they went home from their kung fu classes with bloody noses and cracked ribs.

 

There is a crowd out there that believes that the purpose of martial arts training is to win competitions.  For some it is point sparring in tournaments, for others it is kickboxing, and for still others it is MMA in a cage.  These people train to win competitions.  Some of them have great sportsmanship, others much less so.  I have personally seen some embarrassing behavior at tournaments.  I have seen embarrassing behavior on the parts of competitors, on the parts of their parents, even on the parts of their instructors.

 

There is a crowd out there that believes that the purpose of a martial arts school is to make lots of money for the owner.  They reward their successes with Rolex watches, expensive cars, and homes that could house their family times ten.

 

I’ve never really been one to follow the crowd.  I believe in following an ideal.

 

There are some martial artists out there following ideals.  Personally I look back to the Shaolin or Siu Lum temple and why they started training in martial arts.  I look to the ways in which the martial arts can preserve and improve lives. 

 

According to legends the Shaolin monks had beliefs they wanted to spread to the world around them.  When they attempted to travel they would be attacked by bandits.  They started training in the martial arts.  They gained a reputation as the fiercest fighters in the land.  As a result of their reputation, they didn’t have to fight.  People learned not to mess with those bald headed guys in robes.  The original purpose of martial arts was to be able to fight in a world in which its practitioners needed to fight.

 

Do we need to fight today?  Sometimes.  There are, however, bigger threats to our health than physical attacks.  How can we address the things that assail us in today’s world?  I believe that self empowerment, self discipline, and self esteem are some of the best weapons we can develop today.  Through these we can improve our physical health, our mental health, and our spiritual health.  Improving these can stave off the real threats to us: heart disease, diabetes, depression, addiction. . .

 

Can we achieve these goals through martial arts training?  Yes.  Is it the only way?  No.  It is, however, the vehicle I choose to use to teach self empowerment, self discipline, and self esteem.  At the same time, we get to practice an ancient cultural art and learn practical self defense if we are attacked.  AND.  It’s fun.

White Belt Eyes

White belt eyes.  The eyes of the beginner.  

To have white belt eyes is to see that all the skill one wants to achieve is yet to come. 

 It is to accept that all the knowledge one wants to learn will come through time, training and hard work.

To have white belt eyes is to put ego aside and accept someone else as a teacher:  To "empty one's cup".

To have white belt eyes is to believe that the knowledge one has is a raindrop compared to the ocean of knowledge one will learn.

Having white belt eyes means one has stepped out of one's comfort zone, has walked into something new and unknown.

One who has white belt eyes has sacrificed the known and the comfortable for something new and unkown and quite possibly scary.

When is the last time you looked at the world through white belt eyes?

What will you smell like?

After my last trip to Webster Cave, as I do every cave trip, I hosed off my gear and set it out to dry.  While picking it up a few days later I noticed once again, that cave smell.  I really believe that it would take a lot of work to get that smell out of my caving equipment. 

I have this gear that is dedicated to caving, it has a simple existence.  Go into a cave for walking, wading, crawling, slithering, climbing, etc.  It gets fully immersed in cave.  When it comes out it gets hosed off, dries out a couple of days, then goes into a bag for storage until the next trip. 

Because it spends its life that way, this equipment is permeated with cave smell.  It’s not a bad smell, just a particular one.  In fact, when I pull my equipment out to get it ready for another trip I relish that cave smell, it’s almost like stepping into the cave.

I’d be willing to bet that when I get home from a caving trip my wife smells that cave smell on me.  I’d be willing to bet that when she does, she can see herself inside a cave.  Smells can be powerful like that.

There are some people that, rather than immerse themselves in a cave, immerse themselves in negativity.

Have you ever experienced that?   Have you had someone around you who was so focused on negativity that that’s all they talk about?  I have.

I knew someone who every day when they got back from their fast food job selling hastily prepared fish had stories to tell.  Always it was some rude customer or some lazy coworker or some incompetent manager.  Always when they told the story I could see them reliving it.  The stress of the situation came back, the tension showed on their face, the anger overwhelmed them. 

It was downright scary.

So I started working on avoiding immersing myself in negativity.

 Whatever you wallow in, you can expect to smell like.

 Yes negative things happen in life, that doesn’t mean we have to wallow in the negativity.  Get through it, experience it, learn from it, then let go of it.  If you are going to wallow, wallow in positivity.  If you are going to relive something, and share it with others, relive the high points.  Positive things happen in life too.

 

Like I said earlier, when I come home after wallowing in a cave, I bet my wife gets a vicarious caving experience from the way I smell.  I know that if I come home after wallowing in negativity she will get that experience vicariously too.  Is that something I want to share with my loved ones?

Ten Tigers

The "Ten Tigers of Canton" were a legendary group of martial artists in Southern China in the mid 1800's.  They were mainly known for their fighting skills.  

The Ten Tigers program at East West Martial Arts in Franklin is going to be about far more than just fighting skills.  

Inspired by Sifu Tammy's FIRST program and Tom Callos's various programs, the Ten Tigers is about starting from where you are and transforming your martial arts, your actions, and your whole way of thinking.

There will be intense physical training.  There will be private lessons, and group lessons.  There will be huge strides made in your martial arts skills.  There will be much more important things than those included too.

There will be environmental projects, community action projects, empathy training (ever spend a day blind?), reading, journaling, the list goes on.  

The idea is that mastery should go beyond mastery of the physical side of the martial arts.  What good is it to master a martial art compared to mastering one's self.

For more info email franklinkungfu@gmail.com, or call 270-586-2056

This program is an experiment, a chance for change

Did I mention. . .

Did I mention that I hate pushups?

Vehemently.

I've never liked them.

They are good for me though. I've started preparing myself to go through my Ten Tigers program. So right now, every other day I'm doing the following workout.

20 Pushups and 20 situps,
10 minutes of stance work,
20 and 20 again,
Gung Gee Fook Fu Kuen (takes about 5 minutes),
20 and 20,
Fu Hok Seung Yin Kuen (another 5 minutes),
20 and 20,
Sup Yin Kuen (this one's about 7 minutes long),
and cap it off with 20 pushups and 20 situps.

Did I mention that I hate pushups?

I don't like broccoli either, but it's good for me.

Right now this workout takes about 40 minutes, I think with less rest between activities I can bring it under 35. Once the Ten Tigers program starts I'll be doing it daily. It is difficult, exhausting, hard to find time for (I have to make time), and so much fun once I'm done.

I have this theory about working hard for something. If you make working hard a habit, rather than an exception, when something hard comes along it's not so overwhelming. See if you are used to just sitting around, you aren't prepared to face an emergency. If you train yourself for hard work daily, a crisis can just fall into place.

If you take the fighting aspect of martial arts as an example you can look at it very easily. If you train martial arts daily, get in great shape and stay that way, build your awareness and timing, etc., you are easily able to defend yourself if you have to.

By the way, I discovered that those kung fu forms I've been practicing in my workout use a lot of the same muscles that pushups do.

Did I mention that I hate pushups?

If you practice something daily when you don't need it, it will be at your fingertips when you do need it.

If you practice patience every chance you get, with all the small little annoyances in life, you are more ready to remain calm when that other guy fails to stop at the red light you are sitting at.

If you practice love and kindness towards others every day in little ways, you are more ready to respond with love and kindness when your 17 year old daughter tells you she thinks she might be pregnant.

If you practice personal responsibility in little ways every day (put those candy wrappers and cigarette butts in a trash can) you will be more ready to take responsibility for the big things in life.

The harder you work when you don't have to, the easier it will be when you need to.

Did I mention that I hate pushups?

Sifu Steven O'Nan

My Three Favorite Olympic Moments

Dedication, Spirit, and Courage.

Each of those words sums up one of my three favorite moments from the 2008 Olympic Games.

Dedication - This one will be on lots of people's lists. A swimmer took advantage of his natural physical traits and extreme dedication to his training and made history this year. He won eight gold medals in the Olympics. It wasn't easy. There was one race won by one one-hundredth of a second. He didn't do it alone. In one of the relays his team was behind on his leg and another swimmer came from behind to give his team the gold. His dedication to pushing his endurance, strength and speed as far as he could paid off and he is in the record books.

Spirit - Another swimmer got in the water with two swimmers whose previous times were far better than hers. She dove in and swam her heart out, she pushed her body as hard as she could. When she touched the wall she turned around and looked at the times. She leaped upwards in the water and pumped her fist in a show of pride and victory. She had come in dead last. She had also beaten her best time by two seconds. She wasn't celebrating a medal; she didn't even qualify for the finals. She was celebrating the fact that she took her strength, endurance, and speed to a new level.

Courage - An Olympic hurdler walked out onto the track in his warm-up suit in front of thousands of his home country fans. Over a billion people recognized him as one of China's two greatest athletes and expected him to take gold. He tried a warm-up run of the hurdles and it was obvious his ankle was injured. The injury was to his Achilles tendon. He stopped his warm-up run after two hurdles and crouched down to rub his ankle. When it came time to race he lined up in the starting blocks in obvious pain. The pistol fired, the runners took off, but there was a false start. The agony of the takeoff was obvious on his face. As the runners headed back to the starting blocks he showed to me what was one of the greatest acts of courage in the Olympic games. He removed the number from his shorts, turned his back on the expectations of a billion people and walked away from the largest moment of his life to protect his body from further and possible permanent injury.

Sometimes it takes the most courage to recognize that it is time to walk away from something.

Perspective

Perspective

One fine July morning I put on my glasses, took my allergy medicine,
put on my shoes with arch supporting inserts, and got up to train. I
said to my wife, "I hate having to take allergy medicine to breathe.
I hate not being able to train barefoot. I hate having to have my
glasses to read words on TV."

As soon as those three sentences got out of my mouth I could taste the negativity I had just started my day with. So I started thinking
about those statements. I started thinking about the facts behind
them. I decided to step away from my emotional reactions to those
facts. I have allergies and I don't breathe well if I don't use some
type of sinus or allergy medicine. I have frequent flareups of
plantar fasciitis and am bowlegged, so training without the proper
support for my feet causes my feet, ankles, and knees to ache. I am
nearsighted so I need my glasses to read things at a distance.

At this point I had stepped away from my reactions to those facts and
was able to look at those facts as if it weren't me experiencing them.
I thought about what I would tell someone who had those issues and
had asked me for advice in dealing with them. I discovered that my
advice would be the same: Take your allergy medicine, wear your shoes, wear your glasses.

Then I was able to smile at myself and find some gratitude.

I am grateful that I have found affordable effective sinus medicine.

I am grateful I have found shoes that give me the support I need.

I am grateful that I have glasses that help me see well.

Martial Arts Is Life

Tom Callos has been making the phrase "Out of the Dojo (Kwoon) and into the world." an important phrase to lots of martial artists. I never had that phrase to describe my thinking process, but when I heard the phrase I realized that has been my approach for a long time now.

In everything I do, I do my best when I use the same principles that lead to success in martial arts training, performing, or competing. I try to drive like a martial artist, spend money like a martial artist, play guitar like a martial artist, and so with all I do.

Basic principles in the martial arts include the idea of efficiency of movement. When performing a movement in the martial arts I want none of the movement I make to be extraneous. I want no wasted energy. The same applies when I drive. When I'm at a series of traffic lights it makes no sense to me to stomp on the gas to drive up to the next light just so I can stomp on the brake to stop on time. That wastes fuel, and brake pads. There are times in driving when a sudden acceleration can save you, but most of the time it isn't needed. Knowing how to drive efficiently is driving like a martial artist.

Grandmaster Tom Pardue has always said, "Defend yourself at all times." That is a phrase I have carried over to my spending habits. If I were to go out and buy everything I wanted, I'd have one heck of a Transformers collection, but I'd wind up losing my house due to debt that I would build up. Developing good money habits is spending like a martial artist.

When I perform a Kung Fu form; with or without an audience, my goal is to find that place where I give myself over to the performance. Part of being able to do that is having practiced the form so much that not much conscious thought is required. Playing a classical guitar piece is the same thing. When I have practiced a piece to the point that I don't have to worry about what is the next note, the next chord, the next fingering then my mind can surrender to the music at that point it is all about expression. That is playing guitar like a martial artist.

So, in everything you do, be a martial artist.

Sifu Steven O'Nan

So today, with the house to myself; I decided to do something I have not done in a long time. I went to the closet and got out the bow my father gave me when he upgraded his. It is a PSC Infinity SR-1000, which means basically nothing to me. I pulled out the arrows I had set up for it at a local shop grabbed the keys to the shed, and went out to get the target I bought when I was given the bow.

Remembering that I was told not to shoot at the same spot repeatedly (there are five different targets printed on the thing) as that would wear out one part of the target prematurely I planned to start with the center target, and go around the outer four in a clockwise fashion.

As I stood there at 15 yards from the target, aware of the memories of my father shooting in preparation for deer season; (he would shoot from 90 yards with a 90 pound draw) I felt his shadow looming over me.

I told myself the same thing I've said time and time again to my martial arts students. "You aren't competing with anyone else, you are only competing with yourself." "Practice all the steps to the best of your ability." "Aim toward improvement and don't worry about perfection." I let go of the comparisons and expectations I was imagining and raised the bow.

thiiip-whack

thiiip-whack

thiiip-whack

What do you know? All three shots hit the bag, randomly, but at least they hit the bag.

Looking at the arrangement of my three arrows I decided that I would keep aiming at the center target. I didn't want to lose any arrows; and besides aiming at the same target doesn't wear out one part of the bag, that would require hitting it.

After a few more tries at 15 yards I decided to swallow a little more ego and halve my distance to the target. thiiip-whack, thiiip-whack, thiiip-whack.

My plan worked, by allowing myself an easier goal, I was able to start making small adjustments without the frustration of arrows landing randomly around the target. The feedback I was getting from my groupings was now making sense. After some work I moved back out to 15 yards.

That's when I realized. . . somewhere around 15 yards from the target is where I dropped the keys to the shed. . . I wish I had mowed the lawn first. . . where are those keys. . .

Oh well, thiiip-whack much better shot within an inch of my target, thiiip-whack, thiiip-whack. Nice grouping, now I'm getting somewhere.

As the muscles that go into shooting a bow fatigued my aim deteriorated. Becoming more distracted by the missing keys, the sweat running into my eyes, the mosquitoes buzzing didn't help either. I decided to wrap up with one last round.

thiiip-

No whack? I guess if the arrow doesn't hit the target you don't get a whack. Why did the arrows have to be camouflage?

thiiip-whack-ziiip

What was that? It turned out the arrow head came off after the arrow penetrated the bag.

Come on Steven, focus. Check your stance. Raise the bow. Pull. Breathe. Hold. Squeeze don't pull. . .

thiiip-whack

Bullseye.

Now I have to go back out there and look for those keys.