Tag: Martial Arts Inspired

The Wisdom In Anger

Published on September 26, 2024

During a martial arts endurance/spirit test, a student of mine had to step out and take a knee.

He was only out and recovering for a minute or two and then came back and finished the test performing the best he could.

The next morning, I got a text from him saying that he never slept that night. That he stared at the ceiling enraged at his performance. And that he kept replaying the situation over and over again.

Shortly after receiving that text, as I was doing my daily quote curating for MMQ, I just so happened to stumble upon a line that I felt was meant for his eyes that just so happened to turn up in front of mine. It was: “Stay open to the wisdom of anger.”

And this is exactly what I based my reply off of.

I said, “There are no bad emotions. Only signals from inside hinting to you how you might move forward. Beating yourself up and punishing yourself isn’t going to do that. There is a wisdom in this anger that’s waiting to be tapped into. Channel it. Focus it. And use it as rocket fuel to help you take your next steps.”

Ultimately, the point of an endurance/spirit test isn’t to push yourself until you pass out. It’s to expose you to something really hard so that you’re forced to look into the mirror at your inner self.

…Because easy never gets you past superficial. It’s only when you push towards those outer limits—physically and mentally—that you get to see what you’re really made of… and can then (and only then) start to do something about it.

Stepping Into Our Higher Power

Published on September 17, 2024

One of the most exciting things about our path is that we can choose to change it at any given moment. It only takes one proper decision.

There’s an adult student in the martial arts school I teach at, for example, who just a few months ago was only that—a martial arts student.

Today, I just had a conversation with an associate of mine about potentially hiring this student to become an employee.

What caused this drastic shift in their (and our) path?

…A decision this student made to become a leader.

…Followed by another decision to come in early and stay late.

…Followed by another decision to ask to help other martial arts classes.

…Followed by another decision to ask for a job.

…Followed by another decision to earn it.

If it were up to our comfort zone, we would keep running back the same type of day over and over again. We would do the least we needed to do, we would settle for less, and we would rush to get it all done as fast as possible so we could get back to doing more settling and less.

But, if we can keep our highest version in mind… and we can channel the type of thinking that that version of ourself would hold… we can deliberately choose to take a different path… and step into our higher power instead.

Never “T-Word”

Published on September 10, 2024

My martial arts students and I have an ongoing joke where we, “never use the t-word in class”: tired.

The idea behind it is a classic martial one: our mind will always give up before our body. And so if we can discipline our mind (to push through tired, pain, and fatigue), we’ll be able to better push our body (outside of their comfort zones and into zones of growth).

It’s important, however, not to carry this mentality with you 100% of the time and to, contradictorily, “never use the t-word” only some of the time.

Stepping onto the mats for a martial arts class is a great time to embody this mindset.

When you’re getting ready for bed, not so much.

It’s mindfulness that you should carry with you 100% of the time.

This can be tricky to explain because if you’re not careful, mindfulness can unknowingly turn into mindlessness.

When we’re mindful, we’re intimately in tune with our physiological state. We know when we actually need to rest and when we actually need to push.

When we’re in tune with our ego, however, we start to make mindless decisions—such as skipping workouts because we’re feeling lazy or using long days as an excuse to eat poorly or letting screen time infiltrate our schedules and take over higher priority tasks.

The post-task feeling meditation can help clear things up.

Simply imagine how you’re feeling at the end of a designated task—do you regret doing it (because your exhaustion levels were exacerbated and are truly going to effect the rest of your day/week) or are you glad you did it (because you beat the schemes of the ego)?

Information-Only Isn’t Enough

Published on July 11, 2024

I spent this past weekend surrounded by some of the best martial artists on the planet and best minds in the martial arts business world.

On the one hand, I was attending a martial arts conference where presenters would share ideas, tips, and strategies that would help attendees run a better martial arts school.

On the other hand, I attended one of the biggest martial arts tournaments in the world which was being hosted right next door.

And what’s interesting is I learned just as much from the martial artists who were performing as I did from the presenters who were formally offering lessons and ideas.

It was a great reminder for me that learning isn’t just words, slideshows, and notes. Learning is an energy exchange. One that happens just as much from proximity to other people’s aura, actions, and behavior as it ever does from information and words.

Don’t just settle for words in our modern world. And definitely don’t let screens be your only window into the world. Get out of your shell. Leave the concrete jungle that is your home and home city. Get your eyeballs on some real life greats. Be in the presence of others. Feel their energy. Watch their mannerisms. Soak in their presence. Learn via proximity…

Information-only isn’t enough.

P.s. This is my post from Tuesday, July 9th.

78 Years Young

Published on July 6, 2024

I took a martial arts seminar today from Bill “Superfoot” Wallace.

He’s 78 years old and is still teaching two hour long martial arts seminars.

…Not to mention he demonstrated every technique at a high level (quite literally kicking people in the head), speaks with a level of enthusiasm and humor that many folks half his age would envy, and… get this… opened up into a full center split as he was warming us up.

I have never been able to do a full center split in my entire life.

This… ladies and gents… is continued proof that age is just a number.

With the right mindset and habits… we can stretch our lives much further than society leads us to believe.

Don’t believe society.

Believe in good habits. Believe in mental health. Believe in focused, daily progress.

Believe in yourself.

Mastery Is Not An End

Published on June 25, 2024

Eight years ago, on this day, I tested for my 4th degree black belt in ITF Tae Kwon-Do—the rank of master in our martial arts system.

The title “master” can mean many different things to many different people and there were plenty of schools of thought and opinions that were passed along my way that helped me uncover my own.

To me, this step is similar to the step that’s taken when a young person graduates from school and enters “the real world;” when the child moves out of their parents’ house and learns to provide for themselves; when the sheltered homebody is sent off on a worldly adventure to learn how to make it on their own.

What I see in that title is a symbolic shift in responsibility from being a student within the school to being a student of the arts. From being a dependent on the teachers’ knowledge to being an independent seeker of knowledge. From being a disciplined practitioner to being a self-disciplined ambassador and leader.

Look at it as an ending… and you’ll quickly lose the habits and skillsets that got you there in the first place.

As it is with any skillset that’s “mastered” in life.

Mastery doesn’t represent an end to learning.

It doesn’t represent an end to training.

And it definitely doesn’t represent an end to what can be uncovered within the art(s).

Mastery, as is the case with every stage along our journey, should be looked at as yet another beginning. One that should be taken with an increased sense of responsibility, a heightened sense of pride, and a stronger than ever devotion to realizing one’s potential.

Onward.

Mistakes Aren’t Mistakes

Published on June 20, 2024

In martial arts, mistakes aren’t deviations from the training—they’re a fundamental component of it.

In other words, learning how to recover from mistakes is just as important as learning how to properly punch and kick in the first place.

The reason is because in self-defense—one of the fundamental focuses of any martial art—there are no do-overs. You don’t get to ask your attacker to stop and re-attack you because you made a mistake doing your self-defense or you weren’t ready.

The self-defense must go on. Your thinking must carry on. Your movement must flow on.

And if that’s the end goal, then that has to be the way in which we practice—because the way we practice IS the way we’re going to perform.

And so it is in life.

Mistakes aren’t deviations from the path—they’re a necessary part of the path.

They’re opportunities for us to learn how to think quickly on our feet… to look for openings in unexpected circumstances…to practice being calm and collected even when we’re flustered or confused.

We learn to roll with the punches, both in martial arts and in life, because fighting is never perfect. It’s messy, ugly, and surprising… and preparing for THAT—practicing when it IS that—is preparing for life.

Preparing for perfect is planning for fantasy. And planning for fantasy is the REAL mistake.