Category: Motivation

A Strange Odyssey, Day 2…

I’ve always heard that things start to slow down as a person reaches my age. Considering how much of myself I put into everything, I never really believed it until today. But, man…

I suffered through yet another near sleepless night. The person in the room next door decided to be a total jack ass and try to open the adjoining door between our rooms. This resulted in my eyes popping open and vaulting out of my bed like a maniac. It was difficult to return to slumber after that.

I woke with my alarm at 5:30, wondering why the hell my alarm was going off at 5:30! When my senses cleared and I remembered where I was, I hopped out of bed and started my day.

The first half of my morning was pretty standard; administrative testing in multiple choice form. Although still a touch on the stressful side, it wasn’t anything I haven’t done many times before. The hard part would come later as I would have to run a physical assessment.

I chose to skip lunch, as eating would have had me running the test on a full stomach. This means that although I wasn’t feeling full or bloated when I got to the physical test, I was certainly hungry, which isn’t much better.

When my turn came to run, I took the starting line. I felt confident. After all, this was also a test I’ve done many times before. That confidence may have proved to be exaggerated. The first three out of six laps were easily doable and I was able to maintain a decent pace.

Right around the midway point of the fourth lap, the muscles in my legs turned lactic and I started to struggle. By lap five, my lungs turned to liquid fire and my legs and body decided to start ignoring the signals I was sending them to keep going. I forced myself through the final lap and moved on to the resistance aspect of the assessment, which included a number of semi-circles using a specialized weight machine. All of this had to be done within a specific number of minutes. As I had been warned I was nearing the time limit, I gave myself a final push and completed the last two semi-circles.

on the last semi-circle, the sole of my left running shoe dragged on the floor for about a half inch. That’s all it took. My weakened legs buckled and I went down. Then I drove all 210 pounds of my bulk head-first into the brick wall and crumpled to the floor unceremoniously.

Next thing I know, I have the instructors and several of the candidates standing over me. My face was numb, the left side of my skull was throbbing and I was seeing stars. My only concern was whether or not I had passed the test. Evidently, I made it but with only seven seconds to spare. I knew I had a hard head…

I took a couple of minutes to collect myself and finished the remainder of the test, which was an untimed portion. Once I knew I had passed, I stumbled back to my hotel and grabbed a shower and passed out for an hour. I think it may be time to get some food. This was day 2 of my strange odyssey. I have to make it through a full week. I wonder what the following days will bring…☯

A Strange Odyssey, Day 1…

Life doesn’t care about your plan. I’ve written about that on several occasions. In fact, I’ve always come to think of life as being a story that is unique to me. We all know how everyone’s story begins and ends. But it’s the chapters in between that allow us some control on the rudder as we sail through life.

This morning, I woke up a few minutes before my alarm went off. That usually drives me crazy but considering I woke up at 2:30 this morning, it was welcome as I didn’t want to wake my wife. I especially didn’t want to wake my son and cause havoc in the household right before I left.

Although I had gone to bed early enough to allow for almost seven hours of sleep, I barely got more than two. The prospect and anxiety of my trip weighed heavily on me and kept sleep from taking over. I kissed my wife goodbye and looked in on my son, who was blissfully snoring away (lucky little jerk).

I stepped out of my house and into the morning chill. Although it can hardly be called winter, it was only 4 degrees Celsius this morning. I could see some mild frost on the roof of a vehicle parked at the curb. The taxi I had pre-ordered pulled up to the curb and I hopped in.

I was dropped off at the Regina International Airport and made my way up to the security gate. I made it through without issue and boarded a plane that would usher me towards the next chapter of my life. The odyssey had begun…

The morning sun starting to rise over the Prairie horizon

The first leg of my flight went without issue. Better than usual, in fact, as I had the benefit of having a vacant seat next to me. This meant that I could sprawl and not deal with the awkward, uncomfortable pressing of my body against someone else’s for two and half hours.

I landed in Toronto around 10 o’clock local time. I had just over an hour to spare before making my connecting flight. I grabbed an overpriced burger from one of the food court eateries and stuffed my face with ravenous enthusiasm. Lack of sleep, stress and anxiety tends to work up an appetite.

The second leg of my flight left on time and also went without issue. Unbelievably, I was once again the only occupant in my two-seat row. Was it possible that for the first time in a couple of years, my luck was turning positive? Would this luck hold out over the week to come?

I landed at my destination and picked up my rental car. I had arrived. I checked into my hotel and now I sit before my keyboard with hope and grim determination for the challenges to come during the week.

New Brunswick’s Provincial Capital

I’m in Fredericton for the next five days. I’m trying hard to understand how I got here or what incorrect choices I may have made that led me here. But at the end of the day, I acknowledge that no matter what my plan may have been, life doesn’t care. It throws whatever curve balls it may choose.

I’m therefore going to face this week’s challenges the same way I’ve faced every other obstacle in my life: with a hand on my heart and a fist towards the target. When the dust clears, I’m certain things will be better. I’ll keep y’all posted! ☯

Learn To Count Past Twenty-Five!

Humans are creatures of habit. I’ve written about this before, and it’s no less true than it was when I wrote specific posts about it. And despite this truth, habits can often have a nasty HABIT (see what I did, there?) of leaving us in a slump.

Take your fitness as a prime example. Remember a time when you found a workout that suited you. Maybe it was the style of workout. Maybe it was the specific exercises involved or the amount of sets or reps that were included. Maybe you started jogging or cycling the same route, day after day. No matter the reason, you enjoyed this workout and started doing it regularly.

The problem with this type of habit is that it can lead you into a slump. I know someone who always used to warm up with the same number of push-ups. Every workout, the exact same number of push-ups… His claim was that always doing the same number of any exercise allowed him to know his body well enough to realize if something was wrong, if a muscle was pulled or something in his body wasn’t quite right, he could compare it to the last time he did that specific number of push-ups. Although this sounds like a good theory, it is inherently flawed. You can’t grow and progress without pushing yourself beyond the limits you’ve imposed on yourself.

Imagine that every morning you wake up, have your coffee then head downstairs to your workout area to get a sweat on. You grab some 25-pound weights and do bicep curls for 3 sets of 20 reps. You do this same routine, every morning. Maybe you get a light sheen of sweat on your brow, maybe you don’t. The problem with this sort of a routine is that it doesn’t have the results that weight exercises SHOULD have.

When you weight lift, it causes microscopic tears in the muscle tissue. These tears cause the healing process of your body and encourages your body to develop to prevent that same damage in future workouts. This means that once you’ve gained everything you can out of those 3 sets of 20 reps, you either need to increase your weights, increase your sets or reps or start doing something different.

Routines can be a good thing. They’re constructive and can help you in many ways. Habits, however, are a different story and are what can cause a slump.

Don’t be afraid to change it up. If you’re a weightlifter, go take a bike ride. If you’re a marathon runner, do some light weights. One of the most difficult aspects of challenging yourself is being able to step outside of your comfort zone and do something different. ☯

The Times, They Are A-Changin’…

The world is a constantly evolving creature. Much like each individual person grows and alters with their environment, the world as a whole tends to follow suit. Aspects of the world that don’t move along with the times tend to get left behind, almost like the weaker member of a herd that gets ditched to the rear of the pack. Such is the nature of life.

This concept tends to apply to most aspects of our society. Just think back to the decades preceding the internet. Landline telephones and phone ordering through catalogues were all the rage. But landline telephones have essentially gone the way of the dinosaur and most retail companies no longer entertain the aspect of a catalogue, especially with shopping sites like Amazon floating about. The industry had to follow the times.

The same applies to the business world. Most little mom and pop businesses are slowly disappearing in favour of large chains. Most people tend to forget that those large chains originally started off as mom and pop chains. That being said, it’s important for smaller businesses to understand that they have to keep up with the times as well.

Time for a story…

Last week, I had an unfortunate run-in with a local business. Despite my best efforts to meditate and keep a cool head, I often tend to let my mouth run off before I can stop it (I can almost hear my wife’s head bobbing in agreement…) This generally tends to happen most when I’m dealing with stupidity! But as usual, I digress…

For liability purposes, I won’t name the business in question nor will I specify what the problem was. But needless to say, we had an emergency within the home that required professional help. Given that it was a Sunday afternoon, our options were limited and we already knew we would likely be paying a hefty amount for calling someone out on a weekend.

While I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, my wife was calling the only available option. The person we called, who was obviously the business’ “on call” person, gave us an unreasonably expensive hourly rate and advised that regardless of job length, we’d be billed for a minimum of an hour. I’m not saying I was happy with that, but I expected it. Our situation was dire, so we had no choice.

The nail in the coffin came when we asked to be billed or invoiced, since we were trying to keep things under control at the house and couldn’t leave until the issue got rectified. The on call person made it clear that he would require payment on site and that if we didn’t have it, he wasn’t coming. Just to be clear: He didn’t say he COULDN’T come or that his company’s policies wouldn’t ALLOW him to come. Her very much said “I’m not coming.” I would have likely discussed the possibility of letting him do the work while I went out and got some money, but he couldn’t give us an idea of how long it would take. Hence, no idea how much money to go get. I asked how he expected us to arrange payment if the job ended up taking a few hours and we had no idea how much money to obtain. He seemed unmoved by our plight.

I won’t go as far as to say that I begged, but I repeated the urgent need to be billed or invoiced, which he curtly and adamantly refused. When I began explaining that most businesses in the city would usually bill for payment at a later date, he made it clear that his business has always done it this way and that they’ve done it this way for over thirty years. He also seemed insulted at being compared to these other businesses. The conversation pretty much ended there.

We weren’t able to get anyone else to come help until the following day. The delay caused a mess and some mild damage within our home. I don’t think I need to explain that I was NOT a happy camper.

I consider myself somewhat “old school” in the sense that I’m the last person to jump online and start bashing a business that gives me bad service (or in this case, no service). As a general rule, I’ll simply avoid using said business in the future. But I have to say, this business pushed my buttons.

When I started to read some of the reviews of this business online, I came to realize that they had a history of problems of this nature with a number of clients. This led me to wonder what has kept them in business for as long as they have been, considering the person we had to help us the following day went above and beyond what we needed and at almost half the cost!

Folks, the world won’t stop changing. That much has been made clear, over and over again. So for the business owners out there, I’m the last person who will ever say that the customer is always right. But in the interest of continuing to have a prosperous business, the customer does still need to be ACCOMMODATED.

Just because something has “always been done this way” doesn’t mean it is right. It may no longer be a viable method of performing your specific task. And this is true of all things in life. We often spend our lives in a routine setting. But eventually, the routine may need to be altered in order to keep up with the ever changing face of the world. Food for thought… ☯

Life Is Short

David Wong once wrote, “…life is a flickering candle we all carry around. A gust of wind, a meaningless accident, a microsecond of carelessness, and it’s out. Forever.”

The fragility life is no secret. No matter how strong or healthy we happen to be, the way life ends is the same for all of us. And there is ultimately no avoiding it.

Regardless of what your beliefs may be, religious or scientific, death is a contemplated reality for all of us. We’ve all wondered and pondered about it at some point. For the most part, our ability NOT to think about it on a constant basis is what makes it possible for us to make it through life every day without freaking out.

Lately, I’ve begun realizing that I have reached the point in my existence where life has started to take away more than it gives. Although life is a balance of give and take, eventually the well dries out.

About a week ago, I heard about a work colleague who passed away. It was tragic and sudden. He was out with members of his family and just… died. The only thing worse than passing away like that is doing it in front of family. What struck me most significantly is that this colleague was the same age as I am. Sort of got me thinking.

Sometimes we take life for granted. We neglect to take note of the beauty and the blessings in our lives. It’s human nature to find it easier to complain than praise. But we need to realize that problems can be dealt with, money can be earned but time can never be taken back. So appreciate the life you have in the moment. If your life has aspects that make you suffer, make a change. Do whatever is necessary to keep that smile on your face! ☯

One Good Turn…

With everything going on in the world and some of the horrific stuff we can often read on the news, it becomes really easy to become jaded and write off the general public. Trust me, when out and about I often get to point “A”, buy whatever I need then proceed to point “B”.

For the most part, the things I see while out in public generally include people cutting each other off in their vehicles, dropping doors in other people’s faces as opposed to holding them open and general rudeness. It makes one wonder why these folks live in a large population centre when they have the manners and respect for others that would require them to live in a small log cabin in the isolated mountains. But I digress…

At the start of the week, I was out running errands with my wife and son. I stopped at the local corner store to buy a bunch of energy drinks and check my lottery ticket (I didn’t win, by the way. And before anyone gets on me about the energy drinks, my friends and family are aware that I’m addicted to them and at 3/$5 it’s cheaper than getting a daily coffee anywhere in the city, so… 😜)

While there, a gentleman was at the till. He started to place his items on the counter, and as the line formed behind him, he ended purchasing the items for the next three or four people in line. I was floored! He kept saying “add theirs to mine” over and over. These folks obviously weren’t with this guy, and some of them even looked at him suspiciously; but he genuinely paid for the stuff all these people were getting.

Now, without approaching a total stranger and asking what his deal is, I could only make a few calculated guesses. Perhaps he had won the lottery and was sharing the wealth. Perhaps he was paying it forward after someone had done something nice for him. Maybe he was simply a good samaritan and wanted to do something nice. Who knows?

The point is, the world can still sometimes surprise you. Despite how jaded we can sometimes get in relation to everything that happens in the world, some people will still go out of their way to do good. And we can help that effect by being among those who do good as well. As Gandhi once said, be the change you wish to see in the world. ☯

If You Get Punched In The Face, Your Stunt Double Will Likely Laugh At You

Everyone loves a good action movie. Especially an inspirational one. A perfect example of this is my favourite series of movies, Rocky… Although not all the sequels have received the same level of acclaim, I can watch the entire batch of 8 movies over and over and enjoy them as much as I did the first time I saw them (8 movies includes the newer Creed movies, just to be clear).

The first movie sends an important inspirational message; the unknown amateur boxer who trains as though his life depends on it and is given the chance of his career. Although he loses in that first movie, the moral victory sends chills down my spine (if you haven’t seen the original Rocky, I apologize for the spoilers. But the movie came out in 1976, people! You should probably get on that!)

But how much of what we see in movies is genuine and can have real-life applications? Obviously, I’m talking from a combat or fighting standpoint.

Hollywood, and mainstream sports such as boxing and MMA have romanticized the notion of duking it out, round after round, for long periods of time. Even within the martial arts, we train for hours on specific techniques, but these aren’t practical applications as they would happen in a real fight. We simply do this to engrain the technique and commit it to memory so that we can call upon muscle memory when needed.

The reality is that there is no such thing as a real fight where the protagonist and the antagonist square of and circle each other while dialoguing for several minutes before getting into an exchange that includes spinning kicks and multiple blows to the head where each combatant continues to fight it out, unfazed. All the while with a wicked soundtrack by Two Steps From Hell playing in the background…

The average street fight will last less than a minute. This includes both combatants squaring off, taking their stance and exchanging no more than three or four strikes each. This is all the time that’s necessary for one and/or both combatant to fall to the ground and keep pummelling each other until exhausted. And the reality is that if someone even matching your weight gives you a full contact punch to the head, you’re likely going down. Getting punched in the head causes the brain to impact with the wall of the skull and can cause dizziness, confusion, loss of balance and potential loss of consciousness.

In fact, in an article written in HighPercentageMartialArts.com by Louis Martin, he explains that fights “happened most often within thirty seconds” and that “after thirty seconds, the chances of a knockout or TKO dropped sharply.”

Martin goes on to explain what I described above: “Men usually charge at each other with power punches, fall to the ground, and continue punching until they get tired or knock each other out.” His article actually contains a number of interesting statistics and information regarding 200 street fights he observed to accumulate this information. (https://www.highpercentagemartialarts.com/blog/2019/3/6/how-long-do-street-fights-actually-last-and-what-can-we-learn-from-that)

Sports combatants train to build their endurance to surreal levels because they are required to last as long as possible in the ring. Martial artists will spend hours honing their skills on specific techniques so that they’ll execute them using muscle memory when the need for defence arises. But once it comes to a no holds barred ACTUAL fight against the guy who cut in line while you were waiting for your maple scone at the local coffee shop, you’re looking at about a minute at most, as far as the actual fighting goes.

So keep practicing those specific techniques. It’s important to get them down pat before trying to use them. But understand that if you get into an actual fight you’ll get two, maybe three, punches or kicks against your opponent before the outcome is decided. And in the real world, there usually are no actual winners in any fight. ☯

There’s A Reason Why Rails Are Parallel…

We often don’t realize just how intrinsic our personal values are to the jobs or careers we choose. Sometimes, the career chooses us. Depending on the career we pursue, the job’s core values can often coincide with our own. This is what makes us suited to specific careers. So what happens when those values no LONGER coincide with ours?

I’ve often felt as though my personal values were in sync with the core values of my career. It’s one of the aspects that has always made my chosen career feel natural, as though it isn’t just something I do but it has become who I am.

But in the past two years, my trust in my chosen career has become shaken. And my values and the job’s core values has slipped off the rails (hence the title). They are no longer in sync with one another. And this has caused me to lose trust in what I do. Do you know what happens when you stop trusting the career you’ve chosen?

When we reach this point, it becomes important to start looking at potential changes. Change is scary. It brings the unknown and most people are always afraid of the unknown. It doesn’t mean it’s BAD, but as a people we tend to be more comfortable with the familiar and are resistant to change. Am I just stating the obvious here? Sometimes I tend to ramble…

I think it was Ed Parker (who is the one who brought modern Kenpo to North America) who said, “The true martial artist is not the one who fears change, but the one who causes it to happen.” Trust may come and go, and it always makes life harder when the organization you dedicated your life to happens to turn on you, but if you’re amenable to change and willing to take a chance on life, there can only be good things around the corner. ☯

Don’t Pop Your Clutch

There’s a natural inclination, when you’re working out to go hard and go strong right from the get-go! Although there’s nothing wrong with working up a good sweat (I generally encourage it, actually) it may not always be conducive with getting the most out of your workout.

Last Thursday’s karate class was interesting, because we practiced sets of 50 reps. The instructor would provide a specific technique and had us pair off and practice them back and forth for 50 reps each. We did this for almost forty minutes.

I was paired off with a young lad who was a green belt. We squared off and he attacked appropriately and I began practicing the assigned technique. When I had completed my 50 reps, my partner started in and performed his. Here’s what happened…

I started off at a steady, even pace. I focused on form and proper technique. By the time I reached 40 reps, my strikes got stronger and more focused. My partner started off by striking as hard as he could. He focused on strength and sheer force. By the time he reached his halfway point, he started getting tired and his muscles turned lactic.

What does this teach us? Well, it teaches us that learning the technique properly as a first step is of the utmost importance. Strength and power will come later. What is that quote from Bruce Lee? “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

Essentially, you need to try and focus on learning things properly before trying to apply it. This is sort of what form and kata are for. When entering the dojo, everyone wants to punch and kick as hard as possible and make it look fancy.

Good things take time. Patience. Perseverance and practice. There are no easy paths and even when you have experience, you sometimes need to back it off a notch and take some baby steps to ensure you gain the most from your training. ☯

Hey, Great! You Showed Up!

There’s a growing trend that seems to have emerged in the last couple of decades; one in which the newer generations are rewarded simply for the effort of trying or showing up as opposed to receiving the rewards of accomplishing the goals through hard work.

If you’re like me and are either Generation X or Gen Y, you’re likely used to how things USED to be. That is to say, you didn’t get anything unless you accomplished the goal, you didn’t move on to the next grade in school unless you actually PASSED and you didn’t get trophies simply for showing up and playing the game. But for Millennials and Centennials, actually accomplishing something seems to be taking a back seat to being praised simply for trying. And I certainly don’t mean to paint all Millennials and Centennials with the same brush, so there’s no need for anyone to get offended (yet another issue with modern society!)

Look, I get it! Acknowledging one’s efforts can be extremely important and rewarding on its own. And it can feel good knowing that a teacher or a coach will still pat you on the back and assure you that “we’ll get it next time”. But the current world perspective may be creating a weaker generation of adults.

According to an article written by Ashuthi Kanneganti in the Queen’s University Journal, “The issue with participation trophies is they promote a disheartening concept: that failure is something to be ashamed of.”

Kanneganti goes on further to say, “Failure can shed light on our shortcomings, and making mistakes is necessary for personal growth.” And the article continues by describing how such practices leave children unprepared to face real life failures later on in life, such as college or university. Many of them have difficulty coping with these failures as they grew up without ever having to face them. (https://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2018-09-10/opinions/participation-trophies-are-creating-a-weaker-generation/)

Another interesting perspective is from Dr. Jonathan Fader, Sports Psychologist, who wrote an interesting article in Psychology Today, in which he explains how trophies and accolades may not be in the best interest of the winners or the losers; pride should be had in the win based on your effort and not the trophy at all! (https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-new-you/201806/should-we-give-our-kids-participation-trophies)

So in a world where some schools in the world have adopted a No Child Left Behind mindset, where is the happy medium? Certainly, I was never a “sporty kid” while growing up. Health issues and lack of popularity saw to that. But as I trained in the martial arts, I remember the literal blood, sweat and tears that went into each and every belt rank I achieved. I also had the benefit of knowing that when I wore that belt, it was with the knowledge that I had earned that level of skill and I was entitled to wear that belt with pride, unlike some modern karate schools where you can earn a black belt in two years! (Which is impossible to do properly, by the way.)

Failing at things, regardless of what category of life they fell under, taught me the value and importance of recognizing my skill level and knowing what I had to work on. For most kids, if you reward them even if they failed or lost, you may be teaching them that trying isn’t all that important. After all, why exert yourself if you’ll get rewarded regardless of the outcome?

This has been a hot topic issue for a number of years now, and everyone falls to one side or the other; either they absolutely hate participation trophies or they totally endorse them. I, for one, will be teaching my son that if he wants that black belt, wants that trophy or wants that University degree, he will need to work his proverbial a$$ off and earn it. Otherwise, all we’ll be doing is watering down our society with generations who can’t handle the future. ☯