Focused Energy

I have discovered that I need to refocus my energy. When my energy is unfocused, it just goes wherever it will, the results are sometimes positive, but usually just amount to spinning tires.

Often when I don't have a clearly defined focus for my energy it leads me to obsessing over some topic that was on my mind for a good reason, but really didn't need me to be obsessed about it.

So I think it is time I refocused my energy.

Insurmountable?

Starting off with a big word today.

That's how I felt last night about the triathlon. It felt insurmountable.

I can do the run, I can do the bike ride (my goodness Glen Lily Road is steep though), but I haven't really seriously swum in a long time. I had swim lessons as a kid, (thanks Mom), but I never enjoyed swimming, so I never got good at it (so I never enjoyed it, so I never got good at it. . .) so the swim is a big challenge.

I've always loved to play in the water, and I could swim well enough to get back to the boat if I fell out, or to survive if the boat sank, but that was the extent of the purpose of swimming in my mind.

So now I'm trying to learn to swim 400 yards without a rest, wait, scratch that. So now I'm trying to learn to swim.

. . . and it seemed insurmountable last night as I watched the guy in the lane next to me swim continuously for my 15 minute turn in the lane, then continue swimming while I took my 15 minute turn watching my daughter, then he kept right on through my next 15 minute turn in the lane.

. . .and it seemed insurmountable as my wife and stepdaughter swam back and forth, back and forth, over and over.

. . . and it seemed insurmountable as I couldn't manage to swim the length of the pool without pulling my head up out of the water, and as I couldn't manage more than 50 yards without a rest.

I was feeling discouraged, but then I remembered, 1 1/2 weeks ago I couldn't swim with my face in the water at all, 1 1/2 weeks ago, I couldn't manage 25 yards without a rest.

It still seems like a huge mountain to climb, it still feels insurmountable at times.

but,

Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.

--Randy Pausch

If You Want to Change the World. . .

It sounds overwhelming, "Change the world", so start small.

Change yourself. That can sound overwhelming too, so again, start small.

You don't have to restructure your whole life all at once, pick one

area and start there.

Maybe you choose to live a more sustainable lifestyle, you don't have to turn your yard into a 100% organic farm this year. You might just start a vegetable garden, and make your house more energy efficient. As you get the hang of it, you can keep making improvements.

Maybe you choose to improve your health. You don't have to lose 50 pounds, stop smoking, stop eating fast food, and run a marathon this year. Start small, walk 30 minutes a day and stop smoking. Once you've got a hold on that add something else.

Maybe you choose to be more religious, you don't have to join the monastery/convent, just make a commitment to attend your service of choice once a week. Add more later.

Start small, grow big!

(This is the tree that grows from that seed.)

I Challenge You!!

Easy challenge though, if you have a yard, or a balcony, or a porch, build a square meter garden. Not enough room for a square meter garden, do a square foot or a hanging plant.

Pick whatever food you want to grow. Then grow it. Repeat again next year, and so on and so on.

http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/gem/Training%20Program%20in%20EnglishWeb.pdf

Resolution?

Have you chosen a resolution for the new year? I'd like to suggest awareness.

Wake up and look around you. Think about self defense, not necessarily from punches and kicks. Look at the threats around you and decide how you are going to protect yourself.

If you were walking down a street and you noticed that the further you went the more you were in the wrong neighborhood, a neighborhood that would most likely shorten your life, wouldn't you turn around and get out of there?

So take a look at the neighborhood you are walking into now. Do you smoke? Do you have lousy food habits like I did two years ago? Are you sitting on the couch day after day without getting up and being active?

If you are doing those things you are walking into a dangerous neighborhood, you are shortening your time on Earth. You are taking years away from your life, years that your kids could have you and they won't. Trust me, even when they grow up, they will still want you to hang around for a few more years.

Is it worth it to keep walking down that road? Is it worth your life to hang onto those habits? Is a little more nicotine worth the grief of your loved ones? Is taking the easy path, not getting up and getting fit, worth the price?

Wake up, get up, get aware, move towards health and sustainability, change a few habits. You don't have to go insane with it, you don't have to go off the grid and have a sheep farm. Drive a little less, walk a little more, eat a little healthier. Make small changes.

You can't run a race without taking lots of small steps.

www.franklinkungfu.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages/East-West-Kung-Fu/85287569502

Have You Gotten Complacent?

Are you feeling stagnant? Have you hit a plateau? Getting bored with where you are?

Are you doing the same old things and getting the same results?

That's how I was feeling about two years ago. I was doing some pretty good stuff and getting some pretty good results, but I didn't really feel like I was making much progress, in kung fu, in fitness, in life. . .

So I did something about it. Heavily influenced by my wife's F.I.R.S.T. program and Tom Callos' Ultimate Black Belt Test, I put together my own program. I called it the Ten Tigers Program.

It's fairly ambitious, 35,000 pushups and crunches in a year is just the tip of the iceberg. I did the program two years running, and it starts again in March. A few brave folks decided to join me on the journey and change their lives too. For my students, it also included one on one training sessions. It is hard, it is fun, it is life changing.

And it's coming again!

If you want to get up and do something about all that complacency, you have some choices, commit to your own training plan, (feel free to look at the Ten Tigers program as inspiration), commit to doing all the stuff I've already published in Ten Tigers, or come join the fun with us in 2011.

If you are one of my kung fu students, it's easy, come ask me. If you are a martial arts student with someone else, ask them to use my blueprint, if they won't ask them if you can do my program. If you aren't a martial artist at all, you can still do it, it's customizable.

So get off the couch, come join the fun, and change your life.

www.franklinkungfu.com

www.facebook.com/Sifu.Steven

Fail or Win?

They called it a fail, I call it a win.

see more funny videos

Alone at home, he spotted a masked intruder fought him off enough to escape and escaped. Good self defense.