All or Nothing

Today I analyzed how I go about my training, I have come to the conclusion that I am a bit of an extremist.  I have fallen into the trap of having to do things in the sense of all or nothing. I'm not entirely sure why I do it. If I'm too tired or unwell to do a full set of pushups or situps, I simply don't do any.

It might be because I have a set expectation about how much I need to do in a day and if I feel I can't, in anyway, complete this expectation I give up, thinking what's the point? 

If I really think about it, I've been stuck in this habit for quite a few years and it's not limited simply to my training. Errands and everyday tasks get left undone because I don't give myself enough time to finish all of them. If I don't have all the materials to complete a project all at once, I leave it for later. Tomorrow becomes next week becomes next month and so on.

So what's the solution to this? I don't exactly want to succumb to mediocrity. However, I need to at least accept the days when I don't quite do as much as my peak. 5 pushups in a day where I'm under the weather is still better than 0. As well at least this way I would not need to go as crazy with my reps to catch up to where need to be, potentially making myself sick again and starting the whole cycle of all or nothing once more.

"Always do your best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse and regret."

- Don Miquel Ruiz

Push On With a Pushup

The dust settles as we move on to another year with whole new challenges. Congratulations to our newest Sifus, Sifu Krebs, Sifu Vanderham, Sifu Fuhr and Sifu Csillag. You all worked incredibly hard and I look up to all of you so much. Congratulations also to Sifus Regier and Vantuil for your promotions. You demonstrate to me what it means to be consistently improving. Also a congratulations to Sifu Y. Csillag, you're engagement in the school is of the caliber that I strive achieve one day. One more congratulations to all the students who received awards as well, you all earned them!

The banquet this weekend was phenomenal. It will be very hard to top this one for me. The emotional rollercoaster was absolutely intense! So much so I was still so full of energy yesterday. This gave me hope that I could beat that empty feeling afterwards that Sifu Brinker was mentioning to us earlier. Alas, this didn't happen, the hangover struck me hard today. As I woke up this morning I felt it, that weird feeling of emptiness. My bones were aching, my muscles sore. What happens now? Sadness was starting to creep up on me and as I looked down at the floor I noticed a yoga mat was rolled out beside the bed.. I smiled, and jumped on the floor to pump out some pushups and situps. This did help a bit, it helped me appreciate the little day to day acts that build up into a magnificent demonstration; knowing what it is like to achieve something as spectacular as we did on Saturday from something as simple as a pushup. Although, I think the empty feeling will stay for a little while. It's only natural after having such an emotional rush. 

One thing I thought of though while writing this. It's better to look to the horizon, not over the shoulder. Appreciate what we've accomplished but move on, move on to accomplish bigger and better things. Let's go monkeys, lets make these better things happen with the momentum generated by last year's team. All it takes is one pushup at a time..

Until then, take care everyone.

Little Bro

I hope everyone had a good long weekend. I sure did! It was great to go out and visit family this weekend. Although it was only briefly, it was nice to see them.

I've been thinking lately how people, including myself, treat strangers as opposed to our families. For the most part when dealing with strangers, we give them the benefit of the doubt and are patient with them. This is because I believe we truly want to be a nice person. We want people to like us and be drawn to us, rather than avoid and resent us.

However when it comes to the people we live with and see all the time, we become complacent and take them for granted. We begin to pick at what they do and become annoyed at their little quirks. We become less patient, why? Is it because we are comfortable and confident that they will still stick around regardless? Or that they will forgive you, fluffing it off as it just being the way you are?

These are the thoughts that come into my head after some of my interactions with my brother. I probably give the least kindness to him out of anyone and yet he deserves the most kindness. He took care of my house when I was gone for two months, continues to help out a ton and goes above and beyond when I'm not there during some of the week. He is immensely patient with my busy schedule and doesn't not complain really at all. He is an awesome roommate and I do not give him the respect he deserves. There are instances when I'm hard on him, telling to get stuff done like it's expected and I don't thank him nearly enough. This doesn't make me feel too great about myself and I become ashamed. I really just want what is best for him. I've told him this as well as apologized several times, but you can only say sorry so many times before the word loses meaning. I know brothers are supposed to be rough, this is no problem. However, being unnecessarily mean and unfair is not acceptable in my books. I don't treat my kung fu family that way and I sure as heck shouldn't treat my biological family that way either

I seem to forget what I was like at his age. Although it was only 2 years ago, I feel he has much more of his life figured out than I did. I need to show more appreciation. He's my little brother afterall, the only little bro I have. This is why the relationship between him and I is the one I will mend this year so we can enjoy our time together for years to come.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is don't become complacent with your family. Love them for who they are. You never know if you'll be able to show them how much you do again.

You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family.

Take care everyone!

Reflection and Moving Onward

Hello everyone,

The year of the sheep, my first year in the I Ho Chuan has come to an end. What an incredible year! I look back at myself a year ago and see a completely different person.

Perhaps different is the incorrect term, I'm a new and improved version of myself? That's probably a little more accurate. I have complimented my good habits and qualities while fixing and adjusting other qualities I felt needed to be addressed. The events and experiences that came about will definitely affect and contribute to the rest of my life. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, the opportunities that presented themselves to better myself in every way possible were immense.

I didn't realize what it meant to actually do 50,000 pushups and situps in the year. That is a ton! However, spread out from day to day it is ridiculously easy. Before I knew it I was at 40,000. Insane!

Now another point of note, make sure you actually know what day the new year falls on. For whatever reason I thought the new year was on the 13th. I had planned the rest of my pushups and situps in accordance to that. So when I found out it actually was today, I really needed to push myself. By Sunday I still had 350 to do. I was tempted to just live with it, saving my energy for the 1000 challenge today. Then I gave my head a shake and thought, "how could I get this far and be stopped by a mere few hundred?" So I buckled down and as wisely as I could in the time provided, I blasted them out. 50,000!! Unfortunately, most of my other requirements were not met. I just didn't manage my time well enough. This is something I really look forward to correcting in the year of the monkey.

Being diligent about recording numbers and posting them is a good way to do this, as it keeps your mind engaged and thinking about what you've done during the week. I encourage everyone on the team to utilize the numbers tab on the google+ page. It's a great way to see how everyone is doing and is another source for the team members working out of town to stay motivated an engaged. I know some of us post them in their blogs, I'm not referring to you, you're doing a great job! Thank you for posting them.

I decided to write this blog due to the amount I wanted to talk about this week. I do have a question though. How does everyone feel about the video blogs? I enjoy making them, but feel like I'm not quite able to articulate my thoughts as well as I can with writing. I am just looking for a little bit of feedback. I might swap back and forth between writing and video anyway, I missed writing to be honest.

I am very excited to see what this year brings our way. I'm quite optimistic that it'll at least be as good as last year, if not better.

Until then, take care everyone!

The Lion

https://youtu.be/GHUGNFnC83U