Numbers

Numbers do not lie. It doesn't matter which angle you look at it. I've been training lots but I'm neglecting some of my goals.

Specifically the QiGong exercises but also the Horse Stance, the Plank and the staff form. I'm practicing lots with the staff but not working enough on the form itself. The numbers are a reminder to focus on what I need to focus on this year.




Snapshot:
Push-ups - 1,060 (3,230/50,000)
Sit-ups - 1,060 (3,150/50,000)
Nunchucks - 15 this week - 77 out of 1,000
Staff - 8 this week - 38 out of 1,000
Acts of Kindness 25 -  this week - 63 out of 1,000
Plank - 15 this week - 37 out of 1,000 minutes
Horse Stance - 16 this week - 44 out of 1,000 minutes
Qi Gong - 1 this week - 7 out of 365

Long Weekend

Lots of things happened this weekend already. Work is extremely busy and I had hopes to catch up with some work during the weekend. I doubt it will happen...

Friday night I spent 4 hours at the kwoon. It was great being back at the Sparring class. On Saturday we did form repetitions in fitness class. That is a great way to get your heart going. Then open training. I finally remember the Nunchuck form. Now I need to learn my Staff form and to get the Nunchuck form to look good. At open training I also hit my face with the staff. Then it hit the ceiling (or the other way around). I felt good with the staff but now my nose hurts.

Today we had some progress with the tiling and I hope the rest of the team will finish most of it tomorrow. It will be great to get this project done. Today I also went, for the first time this year, to the dog park. This is one of my personal goals and I hope it will get warmer soon as I don't enjoy going there when it is cold. Tomorrow I plan to learn the rest of my Staff form. I want to know it by the end of next weekend.

Snapshot:
Push-ups - 910 this week - 2,170 out of 50,000
Sit-ups - 890 this week - 2,090 out of 50,000
Nunchucks - 34 this week - 61 out of 1,000
Staff - 10 this week - 30 out of 1,000
Acts of Kindness - 17 this week - 38 out of 1,000
Plank - 14 this week - 22 out of 1,000 minutes
Horse Stance - 14 this week - 28 out of 1,000 minutes
Qi Gong - 2 this week - 6 out of 365

Acts of Kindness

In our first meeting we decided to do an anonymous act of kindness towards one of our team members. This is going to be a great way to know the person I picked better. I hope I will find the opportunity to act and to make a difference in his/her year.

Tracking my acts of kindness (AOK) is one of the requirements I struggle the most. What qualifies as an AOK? Is making breakfast for my kids an AOK? I don't have to feed them, right? Giving treats to my dogs? There are some acts of kindness that I see as duties I've taking upon me. When I brought a dog into the house, I committed to take care of that dog. On the other hand, I don't have to.

Letting a car merge in traffic seems like an act of kindness but if the guy merging is one that changed lanes in order to sneak in front, is it still an act of kindness? Is it kind to the guy behind me that is not going to make it on time because of all the cars I'm letting merge in front of me?

Is saying hello to a friend, co-worker, or a stranger on the street is an act of kindness? If this is the case I can probably track an average of 12 a day. That is going to be over 4,000 AOKs just for saying hello.

Should the AOKs be more meaningful? Should I track only one type AOKs everyday? How are you approaching it?

Snapshot:
Push-ups - 1,260 this week - 1,260 out of 50,000
Sit-ups - 1,200 this week - 1,200 out of 50,000
Nunchucks - 27 this week - 27 out of 1,000
Staff - 20 this week - 20 out of 1,000
Acts of Kindness - 18 this week - 21 out of 1,000
Plank - 10 this week - 10 out of 1,000 minutes
Horse Stance - 14 this week - 14 out of 1,000 minutes
Qi Gong - 4 this week - 4 out of 365

New Year

I can't believe what have happened yesterday. It all went so fast. The Dragon/Lion dance was awesome. Then came the kids demo and I was so happy to see my kids doing so well and also my class, the Advanced BD, performing (great job everyone!). I was also exited to present the awards for the Advanced BD - way to go Miss Deluca and Mr. MacKay!

After the awards presentations, we did the I Ho Chuan demo. I think it went pretty well. I think I finally got comfortable with my Twin Hooks. Then we had the candidates demo. What a rush of adrenaline. I was nervous about the Twin Hooks fight choreography but it was done without a glitch. Finishing with the multiple opponents applications was the peak for me. I don't think I would be able to do another demo after that.

I got my black belt. What an excitement. And I will never forget what Sifu Brinker told me. Because of what he said, this is one of the best moments I ever had.

So after taking today for resting (yeah right resting with 4 kids...), I had to put some thoughts into my schedule for the coming year.

I'm going to switch my blogging day from Wednesday to Sunday. I'm also going to include a snapshot of where I am with my I Ho Chuan requirements and my personal goals. This is to keep me accountable.

I'm happy to continue with the team and also seeing some new faces in the team. It will be great to meet everyone next Saturday for out first meeting (Feb 8 at 2pm if you did not know).

Snapshot:
(this week includes today only...)
Push-ups - 0 this week - 0 out of 50,000
Sit-ups - 0 this week - 0 out of 50,000
Nunchucks - 0 this week - 0 out of 1,000
Staff - 0 this week - 0 out of 1,000
Acts of Kindness - 3 this week - 3 out of 1,000
Plank - 0 this week - 0 out of 1,000 minutes
Horse Stance - 0 this week - 0 out of 1,000 minutes
Qi Gong - 0 this week - 0 out of 365