Winter Reflection

Traditionally the winter months are a time for rest and reflection. So what should we reflect on?

The first thing I think we should reflect on is how grateful we are for the people in our lives who love us. The people who love us make it easier to get through those difficult moments and enjoy the good ones. Have you thanked them recently? Not thanked them for something they did or gave you, but just thanked them for being there? It doesn′t cost anything and it feels great!

The second thing to reflect on is your successes in the past year. I think many people focus on the challenges in front of them and, well, feel challenged. Thinking about our successes is encouraging. "Encouraging" is a great word because it has "courage" in it. We all need courage to push forward and do things. Often it is the things that are new or difficult that are the most rewarding.

The third thing to reflect on is where we want to improve. What didn′t go the way we wanted? What could have worked better? Sometimes when things don′t work out as planned we try to avoid thinking about them because we don′t want to look at or admit our weaknesses. But we must take courage and do so. These areas are often weak because we avoid them and don′t put energy into them. Break this cycle and change your habit. If you take one weak area and make it stronger, you will change your life.

Write down your goals for 2010. Few people actually write down their goals. I think that many people don′t have too many goals. For many, their goals are get to work, survive work, get home, relax a bit and then repeat. If you are reading this, you are already a self selected elite group who have chosen to focus on the goal of learning Kung Fu, Tai Chi or Qi Gong and improving your life.

I encourage you to take the time to actually think about 2010. What do you want to do? What do you want to have? Who do you want to become? If you decide to have a great year and strive to improve yourself, you can make it happen. Avoid negative people, negative news, and negative thoughts. Think about the good things in your life and the positive people in your life, and know you can succeed. You can create more of the things that you want and need, do more of the things that you love and be a better person.

Your goals won′t happen by accident. They happen because you imagine them, believe in them, want them, and take actions to make them happen. Each step is important.

If you don′t imagine them, you have no direction, no focus. But if you take the time to think about where you want to go and why, you have already started to succeed.

It is important for you to believe you can achieve your goals. If you don′t believe, you won′t take action. Honestly, if you are imagining it, you probably can do it. If you know someone else who has done what you are imagining, talk to them and see if they will support and coach you. Talk to the people who really believe in you.

Wanting it, putting your emotional desire into your goal is like putting gas in your engine. Wanting it is the reason for the goal in first place, isn′t it? Wanting it and remembering why you want the goal helps you to take actions.

Actions are rewarded with results. If you don′t get the results you want, reflect on the actions you took, and take different actions. Putting a date on a goal makes it real. Break down your goal into bite–size pieces, plan when you need to take action, and go for it. No one ever ate an elephant in one bite! Take the first small step and keep going! If you need to rest for a moment, it′s OK, but remember to start again!

People say they like change, but they′re usually lying when they say that. We usually want things to stay the same or to be just a little better and ignore the stuff we don′t like. Changing things takes courage because it is new and unknown. You worry you might fail, you might look bad, and people might even laugh at you! But guess what? It′s guaranteed you′ll make mistakes. That′s how we learn! There is a humorous side to most mistakes if you don′t take yourself too seriously. Find the humor and keep trying until you get it right.

If you reflect and realize your goal is not right for you, that′s great too! Undoubtedly, you grew from the process. As you get into the process, learn, refine, and redefine your goals. Dropping a goal is powerful because it frees you to move onto the next one. It takes a certain kind of strength to admit things aren′t working and change course. Forgive yourself if you need too and move on to the next goal.

Decide today that 2010 will be a great year. Decide what you want to do, be, and have. Then write it down and put it on your fridge, computer, or mirror and go for it. I know you can! If Rachel, or I can help, we would love to do so. For the people you love, encourage them to live their dreams and be the best they can be!

Our School Motto

Our school motto is:

Ten Thousand Repetitions
Ten Thousand Victories
Ten Thousand Abundances

Skill is based first and foremost on practice. A few people may have a genetic or God–given gift to excel in a certain area, but this only helps them. It does not replace practice. Practice is the mother of skill. If you want skill you must practice.

My teacher (or Sifu), Grandmaster Wong Jackman, was a man of few words. I′ve had other teachers who would explain or talk at length–sometimes so much you could hardly get a good workout! But Sifu Wong was the best of the best in both knowledge and skill. In about 1985, I asked him how I could improve. I attended four classes a week with him. Classes were two to three hours in length. I worked hard every class and I practiced outside of class almost every day. I was hoping for a technical comment or direction. All he said was "practice more." Pretty hard to argue with that advice, so I figured out how to add a few more workouts and get more out of each one. I kept practicing. December 28, 2006 marked the last class before Sifu Wong′s retirement. Students who had not been in his class for years showed up. Many were standing around and talking animatedly, but I and a few others worked out hard. I did 19 hand forms and several weapons forms. I was covered in sweat and had already changed my clothes once. I approached Sifu, knowing it might be the last time I was able to converse with him in the class setting I had loved for 25 years. "I know you are not the sort of person who talks and gives advice much," I said, "and I am not the kind who asks for advice much. But since this is the last class and I have studied with you for many years I wonder if you could give me your advice for my future training?"

He replied, "Talk less, practice more. Do not forget what I taught you. Think about how to use the movements. Share what I have taught you, do not keep it for yourself."

I loved these words because of their simple truth and direct force. As I was dripping with sweat in a room full of talking people, he told me to practice more!

The case for 10,000 being the magic number of hours one needs to fully master a skill or craft has been made by Malcolm Gladwell, who writes for the New Yorker among other publications, in his book Outliers. If you do the math, you′ll realize is a daunting task. Practice ten hours a day, six days a week for three years straight and you have 10,000 hours. Practice three hours a day, six days a week for ten years and you have 10,000 hours.

If these hours are spent merely plodding through repetitions, they don′t count. You need to be doing your best and trying to improve your skill level consciously for them to count. If you want to become a master, a Sifu, then this is what it takes in addition to a good teacher. However, it takes a lot less than this to get the black sash or simply improve your health.

I have met many students, and though the slowest of them may not be able to learn mountains of complex forms, they can still learn martial arts. Conversely, I have met quite a few people who are too "smart" to learn martial arts. These students read every book out there on the subject, spend lots of time thinking rather than doing, and ask all sorts of questions. They talk more than they practice, but they would understand more if they spent all that time practicing!

When I began learning Kung Fu more than 30 years ago, I wasn′t athletic. I was uncoordinated, clumsy, weak and prone to illness. But I have a good visual memory–I can remember what things look like. I was also tenacious, stubborn, and would never give up. Not only did I stick with it, I trained super hard, often practicing six to eight hours a day or more for years. That′s why I know so many martial arts and have reached a respectable level in all of them. That′s the reason I am a Sifu today.

If you do the repetitions, the skill, victories, and abundance will naturally follow.

Ten Thousand Repetitions
Ten Thousand Victories
Ten Thousand Abundances

Be Good, Look Good, Feel Good