Priorities

I recently wrote about making a commitment to Kung Fu. I had a tough decision today; my group at work was going on a summer drinking session and it coincided with my Kung Fu training. I struggled with it all day - not only would it be fun to go out drinking with them, but it would help me professionally, my coworkers will be shmoozing the bosses like crazy. To go back to my last post - you need to decide why you are doing Kung Fu - it is not something you just do when you feel like it or when it is convenient. You are training to develop yourself physically and mentally and that takes complete dedication. To quote myself "there is no 'martial arts for dummies'".

It will be interesting to see how my feelings on this subject change over the next 12 months. I found out this week I am going to be a father for the first time. So I have a little gift on the way that is going to be an even greater priority, I fully intend to continue my training but I am sure it will be challenging with all the checkups and then wanting to spend all my time I am not working with my kid. I will let you know how I get on. I am excited to raise my son or daughter with the Kung Fu spirit of knowledge and strength, patience and respect. Even if they decide that they don't want to study a martial art then I can still instill the Kung Fu values into them as they grow.

Nick
Yellow stripe sash

Why am I here?

Recently, during a training session we were asked the question "Why did you come to Kung Fu tonight?". It is a great question and has way more depth to it when you look into it deeper. For me it was that I had made a commitment to myself, to the school, my Sifu and my teammates. It is the most important thing for me to be doing at the times of the week I have committed. There is no discussion in my head about whether to train or not - I train Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and Saturday lunchtimes. It is a great question to ask yourself when you approach anything in your life. What I am doing here? It helps you approach situations with intention (yes, we are back onto my favorite subject), which enables you to give your all to the situation and be satisfied at the end of it.

I try to live this way in my work life, my social life and my exercise life outside Kung Fu. At work I am very focused, I am not one of these people who wander in and just get by until it is time to go home. I have very specific goals I want to achieve and I am driven to achieve them during the day. In the gym I know what I want to achieve and why I am there - there was an advert I saw a year ago that had the line 'If you don't go for that last rep, what are you doing there?' (no recollection of the brand...). It has inspired me in just about every workout I have done since. Socially I don't have the same intensity, but I still have intention. If I am with people and just not enjoying the situation I will leave and do something more enjoyable. I figure life is too short just to exist in the same space with people that I find uninspiring or depressing. This happened to me at a cookout 2 weeks back, the people were unfriendly and the conversation was tedious so I approached the person who invited me, apologized for leaving, and explained that I was not enjoying myself. The afternoon improved dramatically after that.

This is something I learned from Jake Hyams, the author of "Zen in martial arts" - in a conversation he was having with Bruce Lee, Bruce explained that he frequently found himself surrounded by people that added no value to his life whatsoever - something that bothered him as he felt that our time on the earth was so short (unfortunately for him, shorter than most). He was very selective about who he spent time with. I am not suggesting that we use acquaintances for what we can get from them, but what I am suggesting is that if there you are spending time with someone who makes you feel bad about yourself, is negative or generally making your life worse then you have a choice not to.

Nick
Yellow stripe sash