Simple Writing

One of my personal requirements this year is to maintain a daily journal. I attempted this a couple years ago, but failed to commit for EVERY day that year. I figured this is because I had too many platforms in which to write my journal. 

I had my phone, my computer, google docs AND my paper journal. It was too difficult to keep track of where everything was. My journey was documented chaotically and it didn't really have any flow to it. This time I am taking a different approach, one means of recording my journal. I have my book, the same book that I used last time I attempted this requirement. There are more than enough pages to fulfill the required number of days. Every journal entry will be written in this book. It doesn't matter where I end my day, I will write in this book. It will come with me if I go on a trip so there is no excuse to write in it. 

It is a matter of adhering to one of the two main principles kung fu teaches, discipline. I need to have the discipline to set a schedule and follow though with it. At this point, my journal is sitting on my bedside table and is the last thing I do before I go to sleep. Even if I only jot down a couple sentences worth of something that inspired me that day or same thing I am grateful for, I still met the requirement and kept to my word.

Speaking of keeping my word, I also was reminded about the success you encourage when you post your numbers. However, instead of posting them day to day I decided to simplify once again and include it in my blog post. This will help keep my accountable.

Distance 118.3/1609 km

Meditation 45/1500 min

AOK 36/1000

Long Hua Jian 28/1000

Journal 9/355

Situps 1050/50000

Pushups 1050/50000

Lao Gar 26/1000

Books Finished 0/20

Sparring 10/1000 rounds

New Year, Same Process

It is now the year of the Dog. We all have new goals, new forms and new weapons. Everything seems to be brand new, everything but the process, this remains the same. This has been a great change of perspective for me. In years past, I always viewed it as a new beginning, completely separate from the previous one, I know now this is not the case.

This program is a continuous process to mitigate and eliminate mediocrity in your life and the world around you. It is a challenge to push your limits and expand your horizons. It doesn't end with the year, it stays with you for the rest of your life, this is the ultimate goal of the I Ho Chuan. Don't get attached to the numbers themselves, they are tools to motivate you to profoundly improve your kung fu, from there it extends to everything that make you who you are.

We may be starting at zero again and the daunting task of completing all those requirements in the year can be overwhelming, but if you just see it as a continuation of what you already accomplished you should have an easy time keeping your momentum and accomplishing great things this year.

Visualize running across the endless field of mastery instead of hiking a mountain and resting at the top.

Sustainability

This week I spent most my days at home battling a cold. Normally I would continue to work through it, but considering I work close with seniors I was sent home to deal with it. This has never happened to me before in my working career. A couple of months ago I wrote a post about the importance of washing my hands, how it is critical to maintaining good health. I have been consistent with this practice and yet I still am susceptible to getting sick. (Who isn't?)

This made me think about other factors that might be affecting my health. There is a saying that it is possible to have too much of a good thing. I believe this week has been a reminder to me to train in a more sustainable fashion. I work, I train, I sleep. This is the majority of my day to day. When it comes to my life between work and Kung Fu, I give myself little time to rest. I am always on the move, this eventually takes a toll on the body.

I am not expressing that it is unhealthy to train. It is how you go about it. Kung Fu is 90% mental. In order to make my practice more sustainable and worth while, I need to embrace the more mental side of the art. I still need to practice in order to get the correct body memory, but to truly understand and progress I need to dig deep into what I am learning and why I am learning it.

My numbers will not falter, I will still maintain my momentum. I simply feel there is a better to attain my goals.

Notes

I have decided to start taking notes after every class. Whether I am a student or instructor, this week I have been making a brief summary of what was covered, what I tried out or learned and what I can improve upon. This is to serve me in a couple of ways. First, it will allow me to look back at what my perspective was on a particular day. Second, it allows me to retain more from my classes, which in turn can help me learn even more.

I got the idea from class on Monday, we had a mock fitness test and Sifu Freitag made a suggestion to record our results so we can review and compare them at a later date. I happen to have this binder in my kung fu bag that has just been sitting there since I started my training, unused. It has a few sporadic notes, an old copy of the curriculum and a list of the Tai Chi movements, other than that I just contains a bunch of blank pages. I thought this would be a great opportunity to use it instead of having it waste away slowly in my backpack, which is already with me almost all the time.

This is just another way for me to keep engaged in my pursuit to mastery.